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OCT  J  t  1918 


Divisiori    ±j^ll  I  • 

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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  65 

Editors: 

HERBERT    FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 
Prof.   GILBERT    MURRAY,  Litt.D.» 

LL.D.,  F.B.A. 
Prof.  J.  ARTHUR    THOMSON,  M.A. 
Prof.  WILLIAM    T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


A  complete  classified  list  of  the  volumes  of  The 
Home  University  Library  already  published 
will  be  found  at  the  back  of  this  hook. 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


BY 
GEORGE  FOOT  MOORE 

HARVARD   UNIVERSITY 


NEW   YORK 

HENRY   HOLT   AND    COMPANY 

LONDON 

WILLIAMS  AND    NORGATE 


Copyright,  1913, 

BY 
HENRY    HOLT   AND    COMPANV 


THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I  The  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament    ...  7 
II  The  Old  Testament  as  a  National  Litera- 
ture    24 

III  The  Pentateuch 29 

IV  Character  of  the  Sources.     Genesis     .     .  34 
V    Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers 47 

VI     Deuteronomy 57 

VII  Age  of  the  Sources.     Composition  of   the 

Pentateuch 64 

VIII     Joshua 72 

IX    Judges 79 

X    Samuel 90 

XI    Kings 99 

XII    Chronicles 116 

XIII  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 126 

XIV  Story  Books:  Esther,  Ruth,  Jonah.     .     .  132 
XV    The  Prophets 142 

XVI     Isaiah 145 

XVII     Jeremiah 162 

XVIII     Ezekiel 172 

XIX    Daniel 178 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XX    Minor  Prophets 188 

XXI     Psalms.    Lamentations 216 

XXII     Proverbs 228 

XXIII    Job 233 

xxiv    ecclesiastes.     song  of  songs 241 

Bibliography 249 

Index 253 


THE  LITERATURE 

OF 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  CANON  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

The  early  Christians  received  the  Sacred  Books 
of  the  Jews  as  inspired  Scripture  containing  a 
divine  revelation  and  clothed  with  divine  author- 
ity, and  till  well  on  in  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era  the  name  Scriptures  was  applied 
exclusively  to  these  books.  In  time,  as  they  came 
to  attach  the  same  authority  to  the  Epistles  and 
Gospels,  and  to  call  them,  too.  Scriptures  (2  Pet. 
iii.  16),  they  distinguished  the  Christian  writings 
as  the  Scriptures  of  the  new  dispensation,  or,  as 
they  called  it,  the  "new  covenant,"  from  the 
Scriptures  of  the  "old  covenant"  (2  Cor.  iii.  6, 14), 
the  Bible  of  the  Jews.  The  Greek  word  for  cove- 
nant (diatheke)  was  rendered  in  the  early  Latin 
translation  by  testamentum,  and  the  two  bodies 
of  Scripture  themselves  were  called  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  the  New  Testament  respectively. 

The  Scriptures  of  the  Jews  were  written  in 

Hebrew,  the  older  language  of  the  people;   but  a 

few  chapters  in  Ezra  and  Daniel  are  in  Aramaic, 

which  gradually  replaced  Hebrew  as  the  vernac- 

7 


8  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ular  of  Palestine  from  the  fifth  century  b.  c.  The 
Sacred  Books  comprised  the  Law,  that  is,  the 
Five  Books  of  Moses;  the  Prophets,  under  which 
name  are  included  the  older  historical  books 
(Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings)  as  well  as  what 
we  call  the  Prophets  (Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel, 
and  the  Twelve,  i.  e.  Minor  Prophets);  a  third 
group,  of  less  homogeneous  character,  had  no 
more  distinctive  name  than  the  "Scriptures";  it 
included  Ruth,  Psalms,  Job,  Proverbs,  Ecclesi- 
astes.  Song  of  Songs,  Lamentations,  Daniel, 
Esther,  Ezra-Nehemiah,  and  Chronicles.  The 
Minor  Prophets  counted  as  one  book;  and  the 
division  of  Samuel,  Kings,  Ezra-Nehemiah,  and 
Chronicles  each  into  two  books  was  made  later, 
and  perhaps  only  in  Christian  copies  of  the  Bible. 
There  are,  consequently,  according  to  the  Jewish 
enumeration  twenty-four  books  in  the  Bible, 
while  in  the  English  Old  Testament,  by  subdivi- 
sion, we  count  the  same  books  as  thirty-nine. 

The  order  of  the  books  in  the  Pentateuch  and 
"Former  Prophets'*  (Joshua-Kings),  is  fixed  by 
the  historical  sequence,  and  therefore  constant; 
among  the  "  Latter  Prophets  "  Jeremiah  was  some- 
times put  first,  immediately  following  the  end  of 
Kings,  with  which  it  was  so  closely  connected.  In 
the  third  group  there  was  no  such  obvious  princi- 
ple of  arrangement,  and  consequently  there  were 
different  opinions  about  the  proper  order;  that 
which  is  given  above  follows  the  oldest  deliverance 
on  the  subject,  and  puts  them  in  what  the  rab- 
bis doubtless  supposed  to  be  a  chronological 
series.     So  long  as  the  books  were  written  on 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    9 

separate  rolls  of  papyrus,  the  question  of  order 
was  theoretical  rather  than  practical;  and  even 
when  manuscripts  were  written  in  codex  form 
(on  folded  leaves  stitched  together  like  our  books), 
no  uniformity  was  attained. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  lessons 
from  the  Law  were  regularly  read  in  the  syna- 
gogues on  the  sabbath  (the  Pentateuch  being  so 
divided  that  it  was  read  through  consecutively 
once  in  three  years),  and  a  second  lesson  was 
chosen  from  the  Prophets.  The  title  of  these 
books  to  be  regarded  as  Sacred  Scripture  was 
thus  established  by  long-standing  liturgical  use, 
and  was,  indeed,  beyond  question.  Nor  was  there 
any  question  about  the  inspiration  of  most  of 
the  books  in  the  third  group,  the  "Scriptures." 
There  was  a  controversy,  however,  over  Eccle- 
siastes  and  the  Song  of  Songs;  some  teachers  of 
the  strictest  school  denied  that  either  of  them  was 
inspired,  while  others  accepted  only  one  of  them. 
The  question  was  voted  on  in  a  council  of  rabbis 
held  at  Jamnia  about  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century  of  our  era,  and  the  majority  decided  for 
the  inspiration  of  both  books.  There  were  also, 
even  down  to  the  third  century,  Jewish  scholars 
who  did  not  acknowledge  Esther  as  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture. On  the  other  hand,  some  were  inclined  to 
include  among  the  Sacred  Books  the  Proverbs  of 
Ben  Sira,  which  stand  in  the  English  Bible  among 
the  Apocrypha  under  the  title  Ecclesiasticus. 

It  is  thus  evident  that,  while  there  was  agree- 
ment in  general,  there  was,  down  to  the  second 
century  a.  d.,  no  authoritative  list  of  the  "Scrip- 


10  THE  OLD  TESTAIMENT 

tures,"  and  that  about  some  of  the  books  there 
were  conflicting  opinions  among  the  learned  of  the 
most  orthodox  stamp.  An  interesting  confirma- 
tion of  this  is  the  fact  that  in  the  first  half  of  that 
century  it  was  thought  necessary  to  make  a  for- 
mal deliverance  that  the  *'  Gospel  and  other  writ- 
ings of  the  heretics"  are  not  Sacred  Scripture. 
There  are  other  indications  that  in  that  genera- 
tion Jewish  Christianity  had  a  dangerous  attrac- 
tion for  some  even  in  rabbinical  circles,  and  there 
was  evidently  ground  for  apprehension  that  the 
inspiration  which  the  Christians  claimed  for  the 
Scriptures  of  the  New  Covenant  might  impose 
upon  well-meaning  but  uninstructed  Jews.  In  the 
same  connection  it  was  decided,  further,  that  Ben 
Sira  (Ecclesiasticus)  was  not  Holy  Scripture,  and 
that  no  books  written  from  his  time  on  (about 
200  B.  c.)  were  inspired,  in  accordance  with  the 
theory,  found  also  in  Josephus,  that  inspiration 
ceased  in  the  age  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 

By  such  decisions,  recognizing  the  inspiration 
of  books  that  had  been  challenged  and  excluding 
others  for  which  inspiration  had  been  claimed, 
the  canon  of  the  Scriptures,  that  is,  the  authori- 
tative list  of  Sacred  Books,  was  defined.  The 
oldest  catalogue  we  have,  containing  the  titles  of 
all  the  books,  dates  probably  from  the  latter  part 
of  the  second  century,  and  is  not  concerned  with 
the  point  of  canonicity  —  which  it  takes  for 
granted  —  but  with  the  proper  order  of  the 
Prophets  and  the  Scriptures. 

The  Jews  had  for  centuries  been  widely  dis- 
tributed through  the  lands  that  had  been  included 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    11 

in  the  kingdoms  of  Alexander's  successors.  Strabo, 
writing  about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era, 
says,  "This  people  has  already  made  its  way  into 
every  city,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  place  in 
the  habitable  world  which  has  not  admitted  this 
race  and  been  dominated  by  it."  A  century  earlier 
a  Jewish  poet  had  boasted  that  every  land  and 
every  sea  was  full  of  them.  There  were  large  num- 
bers in  Babylonia  and  the  neighboring  provinces  of 
the  Parthian  empire,  and  still  more  in  the  coun- 
tries around  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean, 
in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  in  Egypt  and  Cyrene. 
In  Alexandria  the  Jews  had  a  whole  quarter  of 
the  city  to  themselves,  and  Philo  estimates  their 
numbers  in  Egypt  in  his  time  (ca.  40  A.  d.)  at  a 
million. 

In  cities  like  Alexandria,  where  Greek  was  the 
common  speech  of  a  population  recruited  from 
many  races,  the  Jews  soon  exchanged  their  mother 
tongue  for  the  cosmopolitan  language.  The  an- 
cient Hebrew  of  their  Sacred  Books  was  unin- 
telligible, not  only  to  the  masses,  but  even  to 
most  of  the  educated,  who  had  learned  in  the 
schools  of  Greek  rhetoricians  and  philosophers 
rather  than  at  the  feet  of  the  rabbis.  If  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  holy  Law  by  which  the  distinctive 
Jewish  life  was  regulated  was  not  to  be  lost  alto- 
gether, the  Scriptures  must  be  translated  into 
Greek.  The  Pentateuch  was  doubtless  translated 
first  —  legend  attributes  the  initiative  to  King 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus  (285-246  b.  c);  then  other 
books,  by  different  hands  and  at  different  times 
and  places.    To  some  of  the  books,  as  to  Daniel 


n  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

and  Esther,  additions  were  made  in  the  transla- 
tion which  were  not  accepted  by  the  Palestinian 
Jews. 

Besides  the  books  which  were  finally  included 
in  the  Jewish  canon,  there  were  various  others, 
written  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  after  the  pattern  of 
the  several  forms  of  Biblical  literature.  History, 
for  example,  is  represented  by  1  Maccabees,  re- 
lating the  struggle  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine  for 
religious  hberty  and  national  independence  in  the 
second  century  b.  c;  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon 
have  a  counterpart  in  the  Proverbs  of  Ben  Sira, 
already  mentioned;  the  Psalter,  in  the  so-called 
Psalms  of  Solomon;  the  story  of  Judith  may  be 
compared  with  Esther;  the  visions  of  Daniel  have 
their  parallel  in  popular  apocalypses  bearing  the 
names  of  Enoch,  Noah,  Ezra,  Baruch,  and  other 
ancient  worthies.  These  writings  were  sooner  or 
later  translated  into  Greek,  and  some  of  them 
attained  a  wide  circulation.  The  Greek-speaking 
Jews,  also,  produced  a  religious  literature,  in  part 
imitating  the  famihar  Biblical  forms,  as  in  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  2  Maccabees,  in  part 
cast  in  Greek  molds,  as  when  prophecy  disguised 
itself  in  Sibylline  Oracles,  or  the  supremacy  of 
reason  over  the  emotions  was  made  the  subject 
of  a  discourse  after  the  pattern  of  a  Stoic  diatribe 
(4  Maccabees). 

The  influence  of  Greek  culture  on  many  of  these 
writers  was  not  confined  to  language  and  literary 
form;  they  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  Greek 
thought  —  the  popular  philosophj^  in  which  Pla- 
tonic and  Stoic  elements  were  fused  or  confused 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    13 

—  and  a  few  had  a  more  academic  acquaintance 
with  the  Greek  thinkers.  But,  under  all  this, 
they  were  Jews  to  the  core,  devoted  to  the  re- 
ligion of  their  fathers,  of  the  superiority  of  which 
they  were  the  more  convinced  by  the  spectacle  of 
heathenism  about  them:  Judaism  was  the  only 
true  religion,  its  Scriptures  the  one  divine  reve- 
lation. The  Law  and  the  Prophets  had  the  same 
precedence  as  in  the  Palestinian  synagogue.  Of 
the  other  Scriptures  there  was  no  authoritative 
and  exclusive  list,  and  among  books  read  solely 
for  private  edification  it  is  not  likely  that  a  very 
sharp  line  was  drawn;  but,  on  the  whole,  the 
practice  of  the  Greek-speaking  Jews  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  materially  different  from  that 
of  their  countrymen  in  Palestine. 

Outside  of  Palestine,  Christianity  was  spread 
by  Greek-speaking  Jews  who  had  embraced  the 
new  Messianic  faith,  and  their  converts  in  the 
fields  of  their  missionary  labors,  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  spoke  Greek,  either  as  their  mother 
tongue  or  as  the  language  of  common  intercourse. 
The  church  therefore  took  over  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures in  the  existing  translations:  the  Christian 
Old  Testament  was  from  the  beginning  the  Greek 
Bible,  not  the  Hebrew.  They  received  also  from 
the  Greek-speaking  Jews  the  belief  in  the  divine 
inspiration  of  the  translators,  by  virtue  of  which 
the  same  infallible  authority  attached  to  the  ver- 
sion of  the  Seventy  which  belonged  to  the  Hebrew 
original.  In  their  desire  to  possess  every  word 
of  God,  they  gathered  up  the  religious  books  which 
they  found  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  without  in- 


14  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

quiring  curiously  whether  the  Jews  included  them 
in  the  narrower  category  of  Sacred  Scriptures  or 
not;  and  they  discovered  no  reason  in  the  books 
themselves  why  Esther,  for  example,  should  be 
inspired  and  Judith  not;  or  why  Ecclesiastes, 
with  its  skepticism  about  the  destiny  of  the  soul, 
should  be  divinely  revealed,  and  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  with  its  eloquent  defense  of  immortality, 
a  purely  human  production;  or,  again,  why  the 
Proverbs  of  Solomon  were  Scripture,  and  the 
Proverbs  of  Ben  Sira  (Ecclesiasticus)  nothing  but 
profane  wisdom. 

Controversies  in  the  second  century  made  the 
Christian  apologists  aware  that  the  Jews  did  not 
acknowledge  the  authority  of  some  of  the  books 
from  which  their  opponents  adduced  proof-texts, 
and  this  practical  concern,  rather  than  purely 
learned  interest,  led  to  the  dramng  up  of  lists  of 
books  which  were  accepted  by  the  Jews  as  Sacred 
Scripture.  The  oldest  of  these  lists  which  has 
come  down  to  us  was  made  by  Melito,  Bishop  of 
Sardes,  about  170  A.  d.;  it  contains  the  books  of 
the  Jewish  canon  enumerated  above  (p.  8),  with 
the  noteworthy  exception  of  Esther,  about  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  Jewish  opinion  was  divided. 
Christian  catalogues  of  the  Jewish  Old  Testament 
long  show  an  uncertainty  about  the  right  of  this 
book  to  a  place  in  the  canon. 

Meanwhile  the  church  had,  in  its  worship  and 
in  religious  instruction,  established  a  use  and  tra- 
dition of  its  own.  The  Wisdom  of  Jesus  son  of 
Sirach  was  appropriated  for  the  moral  instruc- 
tion of  youth  and  of  converts,  as  is  shown  by  the 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    15 

title  it  bears  in  the  Greek  Bible,  Ecclesiasticus, 
that  is,  "The  Church  Book,"  and  other  writings 
not  included  in  the  Jewish  canon  were  highly 
esteemed  in  the  church.  About  240  A.  d.,  Julius 
Africanus,  Bishop  of  Emmaus  in  Palestine,  ad- 
dressed a  critical  letter  to  Origen  on  the  story  of 
Susanna  and  the  Elders  in  the  Book  of  Daniel. 
This  story,  he  said,  was  not  found  in  the  Hebrew 
Daniel,  and  was  not  acknowledged  by  the  Jews. 
He  proved  by  internal  evidence  that  it  was  not 
translated  from  the  Hebrew,  the  language  in 
which  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
inspired,  but  originally  composed  in  Greek,  and  he 
raised  various  historical  objections  to  the  tale: 
it  ought  not,  therefore,  to  be  quoted  as  Sacred 
Scripture.  In  his  answer,  Origen,  the  greatest  Bib- 
lical scholar  of  his  age,  argued  that  if  the  story  of 
Susanna  was  to  be  set  aside  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  not  accepted  by  the  Jews,  other  books,  such 
as  Judith  and  Tobit,  would  have  to  be  rejected 
also.  He  appeals  to  the  prescriptive  usage  of  the 
church  itself,  which  had  always  used  these  books 
and  read  them  with  edification.  This  immemorial 
tradition  was  authority  enough  for  Christians; 
there  was  no  reason  why  the  church  should  prune 
its  Bible  to  please  the  Jews  or  adapt  itself  to  their 
opinions  about  what  was  and  what  was  not  in- 
spired Scripture;  he  reminds  his  correspondent 
of  the  law,  *'Thou  shalt  not  remove  the  ancient 
landmarks  which  those  before  thee  have  set." 

This  way  of  looking  at  the  matter,  as  might  be 
expected,  prevailed  in  the  church.  Lists  of  the 
books  of  the  Jewish  Bible  were  handed  down,  and 


16  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

scholars  were  well  aware  that  the  Christian  Old 
Testament  contained  several  books  not  received 
by  the  Jews.  By  the  more  critical  of  the  Greek 
Fathers  these  books  are  not  cited  with  the  same 
authority  for  the  establishment  of  doctrine  as 
the  books  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  Thus,  Athanasius, 
at  the  end  of  a  list  of  the  canonical  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  (365  a.  d.),  adds: 
"There  are,  besides  these,  other  books,  not,  in- 
deed, included  in  the  canon,  but  prescribed  by  the 
Fathers  to  be  read  by  those  who  come  to  the 
church  and  wish  to  be  taught  the  doctrine  of  re- 
ligion, namely,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  the 
Wisdom  of  Sirach,  Esther,  Judith,  Tobit,  and  the 
Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles."  But  this 
learned  reserve  had  no  effect  on  the  liturgical  or 
practical  use  of  the  church.  The  question  of  the 
inspiration  and  authority  of  the  supernumerary 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  was  not  decided  by 
any  council  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  catholic 
church;  nor  was  it  ever  thus  determined  exactly 
what  these  supernumerary  books  were,  though 
several  local  synods  made  lists  of  them. 

The  Latin  Church  received  its  Bible  from  the 
Greeks,  and  the  Latin  translations  of  the  Old 
Testament  made  from  the  Greek  included,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  the  books  which  the  church  ac- 
cepted and  the  synagogue  rejected.  About  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  Jerome  undertook 
a  new  Latin  translation  direct  from  the  Hebrew. 
He  lived  for  many  years  at  Bethlehem,  and  had 
learned  Hebrew  from  Jewish  teachers,  whose 
assistance  he  employed  also  in  the  work  of  trans- 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    17 

lation.  In  some  of  the  prefaces  to  this  translation 
(which  was  pubHshed  in  parts),  and  in  other  places 
in  his  writings,  Jerome  gives  a  catalogue  of  the 
books  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  corresponding  to  the 
contents  of  our  English  Old  Testament,  and  ex- 
pressly excludes  all  others  from  the  class  of 
canonical  Scriptures:  "Whatever  is  not  included 
in  this  list  is  to  be  classed  as  apocrypha.  There- 
fore Wisdom  (commonly  entitled  *of  Solomon'), 
and  the  Book  of  Jesus  son  of  Sirach,  and  Judith 
and  Tobit  .  .  .  are  not  in  the  canon."  The  word 
"apocrypha,"  literally  "secret,  or  esoteric,  writ- 
ings," had  been  used  generally  for  the  books  of 
heretical  sects,  or  suspected  of  being  such,  and, 
more  broadly,  of  writings  which  the  church  re- 
pudiated as  not  only  uninspired  but  harmful,  the 
reading  of  which  it  often  forbade.  It  was,  there- 
fore, a  very  radical  word  that  Jerome  uttered 
when  he  applied  this  name  to  books  which  the 
church  had  always  regarded  as  godly  and 
edifying. 

Jerome  himself  did  not  consistently  maintain 
the  position  which  would  make  the  Jewish  Bible 
the  canon  of  the  Christian  church.  At  the  re- 
quest of  certain  bishops  he  translated  Judith  and 
Tobit,  noting  in  the  prefaces  that  the  Jews  ex- 
clude these  books  from  the  canon  and  put  them 
among  the  apocrypha,  but  significantly  adding 
in  the  one  case  that  he  thinks  it  better  to  oppose 
the  judgment  of  the  Pharisees  and  obey  the  com- 
mands of  the  bishops,  in  the  other  pleading  not 
only  the  demand  of  a  bishop  but  the  fact  that  the 
Nicene  Council  had  included  Judith  among  th# 


18  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Sacred  Books.^  In  another  preface  he  describes 
Ecclesiasticus  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  as 
books  which  the  church  reads  *'for  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  people,  not  for  proving  the  doctrines 
of  the  church"  —  a  definition  which  accords  with 
the  attitude  of  many  of  the  Greek  Fathers. 
Jerome  thus  halts  between  two  opinions :  in  rele- 
gating to  the  apocrypha  everything  that  is  not 
in  the  Hebrew  Bible  he  speaks  as  a  critic;  in 
recognizing  the  books  found  in  the  Christian  Old 
Testament,  but  not  in  the  Hebrew,  as  useful  and 
edifying,  though  of  inferior  authority  for  doctrinal 
purposes,  he,  like  Origen,  takes  the  ground  of  the 
practical  churchman.  The  mediating  position  is 
more  clearly  defined  by  Rufinus,  who,  after  giv- 
ing a  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
adds:  "There  are  other  books,  which  older  au- 
thors called  not  *  canonical'  but  *  ecclesiastical,' 
such  as  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  the  so-called 
Wisdom  of  the  Son  of  Sirach,  named  by  the  Latins 
Ecclesiasticus;  to  the  same  class  belong  Tobit, 
Judith  and  the  Books  of  the  Maccabees." 

The  great  influence  of  Augustine  was  thrown 
wholly  on  the  side  of  ecclesiastical  tradition;  he 
even  remonstrated  with  Jerome  for  translating 
the  Old  Testament  from  the  Hebrew  and  thus 
disturbing  the  minds  of  the  faithful,  instead  of 
revising  the  Old  Latin  version  after  the  Greek.  In 
his  treatise  on  Christian  Doctrine  (ii.  8;  written 
in  397  A.  D.)  he  includes  among  the  canonical 

*  The  Nicene  Council  made  no  formal  deliverance  on  the 
subject  of  the  canon,  and  upon  what  Jerome's  appeal  to  its 
authority  rests  is  unknown. 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT    19 

books  of  the  Old  Testament  Judith,  Tobit,  1 
and  2  Maccabees,  Ecclesiasticus,  and  the  Wisdom 
of  Solomon;  African  provincial  synods  at  Hippo 
(393  A.  D.)  and  Carthage  (397  A.  d.)  pronounced 
themselves  in  the  same  sense. 

The  Syriac-speaking  churches,  whose  Old 
Testament  was  translated  from  the  Hebrew, 
originally  recognized  those  books  only  which 
were  found  in  the  Jewish  Bible;  it  appears,  in- 
deed, that  the  earliest  Syriac  version  did  not 
extend  to  Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah, 
but  did  include  Sirach.  Under  the  influence  of 
the  Greek  Church,  those  branches  of  the  Syrian 
Church  which  remained  in  communion  with  it 
gradually  added  to  their  Bible  translations  of  the 
other  books  from  the  Greek;  but  the  Nestorians, 
in  whose  schools  Biblical  criticism  moved  more 
freely  than  in  the  Catholic  Church,  continued  to 
reject  them,  or  to  accord  them,  together  with 
several  of  the  books  commonly  reckoned  canoni- 
cal (Chronicles,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Judith,  1  and 
2  Maccabees,  Job,  Ecclesiasticus,  Wisdom),  only 
qualified  authority. 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  learned  authors 
repeated  the  conflicting  utterances  of  the  Fathers 
concerning  the  canon,  without  being  disturbed 
by  their  inconsistency;  in  practice,  the  Old 
Testament  comprised  all  the  books  that  were 
usually  found  in  copies  of  the  Greek  or  Latin 
Bible,  without  regard  to  the  fine  distinctions  of 
"canonical"  and  "ecclesiastical."  The  im- 
memorial usage  of  the  church  had  more  weight 
than  the  opinions  of  scholars.     With  this  con- 


20  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

curred  the  fact  that  from  the  fourth  century  on 
the  Bible  was  copied  in  collective  codices,  on 
folded  sheets  of  parchment  or  vellum  Hke  our 
books,  not  in  separate  rolls,  and  thus  the  canon 
of  the  Old  Testament  became,  not  a  mere  list 
of  Sacred  Books,  but  a  physical  unity,  in  which 
the  books  of  the  Jewish  Bible  were  intermingled 
with  those  which  the  Jews  did  not  accept. 

The  question  assumed  a  new  significance  at 
the  Reformation.  In  rejecting  the  authority  of 
ecclesiastical  tradition  and  the  prescriptive  usage 
of  the  church  and  making  the  Scriptures  the 
only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  the  Reformers 
were  under  the  necessity  of  deciding  what  books 
were  inspired  Scripture,  containing  the  Word 
of  God  revealed  to  men,  clothed  with  divine 
authority,  demanding  unqualified  faith,  and  a 
means  of  grace  to  believers.  Obviously  they 
could  not  logically  acknowledge  books  whose 
place  in  the  Bible  had  no  other  warrant  than  that 
the  church  had  accepted  them  from  very  early 
times;  nothing  short  of  the  authority  of  the  New 
Testament  itself  would  suffice,  and  they  found 
in  the  New  Testament  no  quotations  from  these 
books.  To  the  Jews,  St.  Paul  said,  were  com- 
mitted the  oracles  of  God;  it  was  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  to  which  Jesus  and  the  Apostles  ap- 
pealed. 

Naturally,  therefore,  Luther  reverted  to  the 
position  of  Jerome:  the  books  found  in  the  He- 
brew Bible,  and  those  only,  were  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  Testament;  whatever  was  more  than 
these  was  to  be  reckoned  among  the  apocrypha. 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT   21 

Consistently,  in  his  translation  of  the  Bible, 
Luther  separated  the  books  of  this  class  from 
the  books  of  the  Jewish  canon  among  which  in 
the  Latin  Bible  they  were  scattered,  and  brought 
them  together  in  a  group  by  themselves.  In 
the  first  complete  printed  edition  of  his  transla- 
tion (1534),  these  books  (Judith,  Wisdom, 
Tobit,  Sirach,  Baruch,  1  and  2  Maccabees,  the 
Greek  additions  to  Esther  and  Daniel,  the 
Prayer  of  Manasseh)  stand  between  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  with  the  title  (after 
Jerome)  '^Apocrypha;  that  is,  books  that  are 
not  equally  esteemed  with  the  Holy  Scripture, 
but  nevertheless  are  profitable  and  good  to  read." 
The  other  Protestant  versions,  on  the  Continent 
and  in  England,  followed  this  example. 

The  attitude  of  Luther  toward  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Apocrypha  was  maintained  by  the  Lu- 
theran Churches,  whose  Confessions  do  not,  how- 
ever, attempt  a  more  exact  definition  of  the  value 
and  authority  of  the  Apocrypha.  The  earlier 
Reformed  (Calvinistic)  Confessions  take  sub- 
stantially the  same  ground:  the  Ecclesiastical 
Books,  or  Apocrypha,  are  useful,  especially  for 
moral  instruction,  but  tliey  have  not  the  same 
authority  as  the  canonical  books,  and  doctrines 
may  not  be  deduced  from  them  alone.  The 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  (1563;  English 
translation,  1571)  agree  on  this  point  with  the 
other  Reformed  Confessions:  after  enumerating 
the  canonical  books  "of  whose  authority  there 
was  never  any  doubt  in  the  Church,"  the  Sixth 
Article    continues:      "And    the    other    books 


22  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

(as  Hierome  saith)  the  Church  doth  read  for 
example  of  life,  and  instruction  of  manners; 
but  yet  it  doth  not  apply  them  to  establish  any 
doctrine.'*  A  list  of  such  books  follows,  com- 
prising those  commonly  printed  in  the  English 
Bible  under  the  title  Apocrypha. 

A  more  radical  position  was  represented  by 
the  Synod  of  Dort  (1618)  and  by  the  West- 
minster Assembly  (1643).  The  latter  declares: 
"The  books  commonly  called  Apocrypha,  not 
being  of  divine  inspiration,  are  no  part  of  the 
canon  of  Scripture;  and  therefore  are  of  no 
authority  in  the  church  of  God,  nor  to  be  other- 
wise approved,  or  made  use  of,  than  other  human 
writings.'* 

In  opposition  to  the  Protestant  limitation  of 
the  canon  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  books  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible,  the  Roman  Church  defined 
its  attitude  more  sharply.  In  the  Fourth  Session 
of  the  Council  of  Trent  (1546)  it  framed  a  "De- 
cree concerning  the  Canonical  Scripture,'*  in 
which  the  books  set  apart  by  the  Protestants  as 
Apocrypha  are  included  with  the  rest.  The 
complete  contents  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
Catholic  Bible  as  thus  defined  are  as  follows: 
The  Five  Books  of  Moses,  that  is,  Genesis,  Exo- 
dus, Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deuteronomy;  Joshua, 
Judges,  Ruth,  four  Books  of  Kings  [Samuel, 
Kings],  two  Books  of  Chronicles,  1  and  2  Esdras 
[Ezra,  Nehemiah],  Tobit,  Judith,  Esther,  Job, 
the  Psalter  of  David,  containing  one  hundred 
and  fifty  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song 
of  Songs,  Wisdom,  Ecclesiasticus,  Isaiah,  Jere- 


THE  CANON  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT   23 

miah  with  Baruch,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  the  Twelve 
Minor  Prophets,  two  Books  of  Maccabees, 
namely,  the  First  and  Second.  .  .  .  "If  any 
man  does  not  accept  as  sacred  and  canonical 
these  books,  entire,  with  all  their  parts,  as  they 
have  customarily  been  read  in  the  Catholic 
Church  and  are  contained  in  the  ancient  common 
Latin  edition   .    .    .   let  him  be  anathema ! " 

This  decree  not  only  affirms  that  all  the  books 
in  question  are  Holy  and  Canonical  Scripture, 
but  seems  to  put  them  all  in  one  class,  and  delib- 
erately to  exclude  the  ancient  distinction  between 
the  books  of  the  Jewish  Bible  and  the  Eccle- 
siastical Books.  Many  of  the  Fathers  had, 
however,  made  such  a  distinction,  and  Catholic 
scholars,  even  after  Trent,  thought  it  permis- 
sible to  class  the  Ecclesiastical  Books  (which 
Protestants  call  the  Apocrypha)  as  "deutero- 
canonic,"  meaning  not  thereby  to  imply  that 
they  are  inferior  in  authority  or  infallibility 
or  dignity  —  for  both  classes  owe  their  excel- 
lence to  the  same  Holy  Spirit  —  but  that  they 
had  attained  recognition  in  the  church  at  a 
later  time  than  the  others.  Individuals  have 
sometimes  gone  farther,  and  acknowledged  a 
difference  in  authority:  the  deuterocanonic 
books  are  useful  for  edification,  but  not  for  the 
proof  of  doctrines  —  a  position  substantially  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Greek  Fathers  and  of  moderate 
Protestants;  but  this  is  plainly  against  the  sense 
of  the  decree  of  Trent. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   AS  A  NATIONAL 
LITERATURE 

For  the  religious  apprehension  of  Jews  and 
Christians  the  Old  Testament  is  a  body  of  Sacred 
Scriptures,  containing  the  Word  of  God  as  re- 
vealed to  the  chosen  people.  The  revelation  was 
made  *'at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners" 
through  many  centuries,  that  is  to  say,  it  has  a 
historical  character,  an  adaptation  to  the  needs 
or  accommodation  to  the  capacities  of  men,  and, 
from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  makes  a  pro- 
gressive disclosure  of  the  divine  purpose  and 
plan  of  salvation.  To  understand  this  economy 
of  revelation,  or  this  pedagogic  of  religion,  it  is 
necessary  to  distinguish  the  times,  and  to  deter- 
mine the  nature,  authorship,  and  age  of  the 
several  books  or  parts  of  books.  The  critical 
questions  which  lie  at  the  threshold  of  every 
historical  inquiry  arise,  therefore,  in  the  study 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  much  learning  and 
acumen  have  been  expended  upon  them,  espe- 
cially in  modern  times,  by  scholars  of  all  shades 
of  theological  opinion.  That  there  should  be 
wide  divergence  in  their  conclusions  on  many 
points  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  the  difficulty 
of  many  of  the  questions  and  the  insufficiency  of 

24 


AS  A  NATIONAL  LITERATURE      25 

the  data  available  for  a  solution;  the  same 
thing  is  true  in  other  ancient  literatures. 

A  more  radical  difference  exists  in  the  Old 
Testament,  however,  because,  for  many  scholars. 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  the  deliverances  of  the 
church,  or  the  consent  of  tradition,  or  the  testi- 
mony of  the  New  Testament,  or  the  concurrence 
of  all  these,  outweighs,  in  such  a  matter  as  the 
unity  and  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch, 
the  internal  evidence  of  the  books  themselves, 
and  makes  it  their  task  to  show  that  the  evidence 
which  seems  to  contradict  this  attribution  is, 
when  properly  interpreted,  compatible  with  it; 
while  others  hold  that  no  external  authority  and 
no  theory  of  inspiration  can  be  allowed  to 
countervail  the  cumulative  weight  of  internal 
evidence. 

Apart  from  its  religious  value  and  authority  for 
the  synagogue  and  the  church,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment contains  the  remains  of  a  national  literature 
which  richly  rewards  study  for  its  own  sake. 
While  its  masterpieces  may  be  read  with  pleasure 
and  profit  without  regard  to  the  age  and  circum- 
stances in  which  they  were  written,  they  will 
be  better  appreciated  as  well  as  better  under- 
stood in  the  light  of  their  own  times  and  in  their 
place  in  the  literature  as  a  whole.  In  this  liter- 
ature are  also  the  sources  for  the  political  history 
of  the  Hebrew  people  and  for  the  history  of  its 
civilization  and  religion.  The  critical  ordering 
and  appraisal  of  these  sources  is  fundamental  to 
any  solid  historical  construction  and,  indeed,  to 
any  historical  understanding  of  the  Old  Testament. 


26  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

In  the  present  volume  the  results  of  this 
critical  inquiry  are  concisely  set  forth,  with  pri- 
mary reference  to  the  history  of  the  literature 
and  the  development  of  religion,  rather  than  to 
the  sources  for  the  political  history,  a  complete 
investigation  of  which  would  require  a  somewhat 
different  method.  The  questions  are  approached 
in  the  same  way  in  which  we  should  deal  with 
similar  questions  in  any  other  literature;  critical 
problems,  whether  in  sacred  texts  or  profane,  can 
be  solved  only  by  the  application  of  the  established 
methods  of  historical  criticism. 

All  that  survives  of  Hebrew  literature  prior  to 
the  age  of  Alexander  is  preserved  in  the  Jewish 
Bible.  It  is  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century  b.  c.  that  we  come  upon  books  written  by 
Jews  in  Hebrew  or  in  Greek  which  are  not  included 
in  the  canon.  It  is,  doubtless,  only  a  small  part 
of  a  rich  and  varied  literature  that  has  thus  been 
rescued  across  the  centuries;  much  the  larger 
part  of  what  was  written  in  the  days  of  the 
national  kingdoms,  for  example,  must  have  per- 
ished in  the  catastrophes  which  befell  Israel  in 
the  eighth  century  and  Judah  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sixth.  What  was  saved  was  preserved  for 
its  intrinsic  religious  value  or  its  association 
with  great  names  of  religious  leaders  and  teach- 
ers, not  out  of  a  merely  literary  or  patriotic 
interest.  Nor  were  these  losses  confined  to  the 
older  literature.  Of  the  history  of  Judah  under 
the  Persian  kings,  for  example,  there  must 
once  have  been  completer  records  than  the 
dubious  scraps  we  have  in  Ezra.     Of  secular 


AS  A  NATIONAL  LITERATURE      27 

poetry,  which  there  is  every  reason  to  think 
flourished  no  less  than  hymnody,  we  should  have 
had  no  specimens,  had  not  an  anthology  of  love 
songs  somehow  got  the  name  of  Solomon,  and 
by  a  mystical  interpretation  been  converted  to 
religion.  The  remains  of  this  literature  are  scat- 
tered unequally  over  a  period  of  a  thousand 
years  or  more.  The  youngest  writings  in  the 
canon  date  from  the  second  century  b.  c.  (Daniel, 
Maccabean  Psalms),  being  later  than  Sirach,  and 
contemporary  with  some  of  the  Visions  of 
Enoch.  All  that  is  preserved  of  the  earliest 
writings  has  been  transmitted  to  us  by  later 
authors,  who  incorporated  in  their  works  longer 
or  shorter  passages  extracted  from  their  prede- 
cessors. 

The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  differ  widely 
in  matter  and  form  —  history  and  story;  legis- 
lation, civil  and  ritual,  moral  and  ceremonial; 
prophecy  and  apocalypse;  lyric,  didactic,  and 
dramatic  poetry.  The  literary  quality  of  the 
best  in  all  these  kinds  is  very  high.  The 
Song  of  Deborah  (Judg.  5),  notwithstanding  the 
imperfect  state  of  the  text,  is  one  of  the  greatest 
of  triumphal  odes;  parts  of  Job  attain  the  height 
of  the  sublime;  some  of  the  Psalms  are  worthy 
of  a  foremost  place  among  religious  lyrics;  many 
oracles  of  the  prophets  are  as  noteworthy  for 
the  perfection  of  the  expression  as  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  thought;  the  laws  are  often  formulated 
with  admirable  precision;  in  the  art  of  narration 
the  older  historians  are  unsurpassed  in  ancient 
literature.     These  qualities  appear  even  more 


28  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

conspicuous  in  comparison  with  the  remains  of 
Egyptian  or  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  writings. 
It  is  only  among  the  Greeks  that  we  find  anything 
to  match  the  finest  productions  of  the  Hebrew 
genius.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  Old 
Testament  is  not  all  on  this  high  level  of  excel- 
lence—  what  literature  is?  But,  taken  as  a 
whole,  the  level  is  surprisingly  high,  and  even  in 
the  decadence  classical  models  are  sometimes 
imitated  with  no  small  degree  of  success. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PENTATEUCH 

The  Old  Testament  begins  with  a  compre- 
hensive historical  work,  reaching  from  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  to  the  fall  of  the  kingdom  of 
Judah  (586  b.  c),  which  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  is 
divided  into  nine  books  (Genesis-Kings).  The 
Jews  made  a  greater  division  at  the  end  of  the 
fifth  book  (Deuteronomy)  and  treated  the  first 
five  books  (the  Pentateuch)  as  a  unit,  with  a  char- 
acter and  name  of  its  own,  the  Law.  The  names 
of  the  several  books  in  our  Bibles  are  derived 
from  the  Greek  version,  and  indicate  in  a  general 
way  the  subject  of  the  book,  or,  more  exactly, 
the  subject  with  which  it  begins:  Genesis,  the 
creation  of  the  world:  Exodus,  the  escape  from 
Egypt;  Leviticus,  the  priests'  book;  Numbers, 
the  census  of  the  tribes;  Deuteronomy,  the  sec- 
ond legislation,  or  the  recapitulation  of  the  law. 

The  three  middle  books  of  the  Pentateuch  (Exo- 
dus-Numbers) are  more  closely  connected  with  one 
another  than  with  the  preceding  and  following 
books  (Genesis,  Deuteronomy) ;  in  fact,  they  form 
a  whole  which  is  only  for  convenience  in  handling 
divided  into  parts.  In  these  books  narrative  and 
legislation  are  somewhat  unequally  represented. 
Exod.  1-19  is  almost  all  narrative,  as  are  also 
29 


30  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

c.  24,  and  cc.  32-34;  the  story  is  picked  up  again 
in  Num.  10,  what  lies  between  is  wholly  legis- 
lative; in  Num.  10-27,  28-36,  narrative  and  laws 
alternate,  the  latter  predominating.  It  is  evident 
that  from  the  author's  point  of  view  the  narrative 
was  primarily  a  historical  setting  for  the  Mosaic 
legislation. 

Deuteronomy  begins  with  a  brief  retrospect 
(Deut.  1-3)  of  the  movements  of  the  Israelites 
from  the  time  they  left  the  Mount  of  God  till 
they  arrived  in  the  Plains  of  Moab,  the  lifetime 
of  a  whole  generation.  There,  as  they  are  about 
to  cross  the  Jordan  to  possess  the  Land  of  Prom- 
ise, Moses  delivers  to  them  the  law  which  they 
shall  observe  in  the  land,  and  with  many  exhor- 
tations and  warnings  urges  them  to  be  faithful 
to  their  religion  with  its  distinctive  worship  and 
morals.  Thus  Deuteronomy  also  presents  itself 
essentially  as  legislation. 

The  history  of  the  Israelite  tribes  opens  with 
the  account  of  the  oppression  in  Egypt,  the 
introduction  to  the  story  of  deliverance.  Its 
antecedents  are  found  in  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
the  migration  of  Jacob  and  his  sons  from  Pales- 
tine to  Egypt  several  generations  earlier  in  a 
time  of  famine;  and  this  in  turn  is  but  the  last 
chapter  in  the  patriarchal  story  which  begins 
with  the  migration  of  Abraham  from  Syria  or 
Babylonia  to  Palestine.  Gen.  1-11  tells  of  crea- 
tion and  the  first  men;  the  great  flood;  the  dis- 
persion of  the  peoples,  with  a  genealogical  table 
showing  the  affinities  of  the  several  races  and 
another    tracing    the    descent    of    Abraham    in 


THE  PENTATEUCH  31 

direct  line  from  Shem  the  son  of  Noah.  But 
even  in  Genesis  the  interest  in  the  law  mani- 
fests itself  in  various  ways,  such  as  the  sanction 
of  the  sabbath,  the  prohibition  of  blood,  and  the 
introduction  of  circumcision. 

In  regarding  the  whole  Pentateuch  as  Law,  or, 
to  express  it  more  accurately,  as  a  revelation  of 
the  principles  and  observances  of  religion,  the 
Jews  were,  therefore,  doing  no  violence  to  the 
character  and  spirit  of  these  books;  and  in  ascrib- 
ing them  to  Moses  they  were  only  extending  to 
the  whole  the  authorship  which  is  asserted  in 
particular  of  many  of  the  laws,  and  especially 
of  the  impressive  exhortations  in  Deuteronomy 
which  form  the  climactic  close  of  his  work  as  a 
legislator. 

It  was  early  observed,  however,  that  there  are 
numerous  expressions  in  the  Pentateuch  which 
assume  the  settlement  of  Israel  in  Canaan  and 
look  back  to  the  age  of  Moses  as  to  a  somewhat 
remote  past:  Gen.  xxxvi.  31,  for  example,  implies 
the  existence  of  the  Israelite  monarchy.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  such  anachronisms  were 
bandied  about  a  good  deal,  but,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  all  brief  clauses  which  might  well  be 
notes  or  glosses  by  scribes,  they  proved  nothing 
about  the  age  of  the  main  text.  The  controversy 
sharpened  the  eyes  of  the  critics,  and  many  more 
conclusive  facts  were  brought  to  light,  which 
proved  that  the  Pentateuch  was  not  the  product 
of  one  author  nor  of  one  age,  and  that,  whatever 
part  Moses  may  be  conceived  to  have  had  in  it, 
much  must  be  ascribed  to  later  writers.    Spinoza, 


8«  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

for  example,  thought  that  Ezra  was  the  author, 
or,  more  exactly,  the  compiler  and  editor,  of  the 
Pentateuch  as  we  have  it;  while  Richard  Simon 
preferred  the  hypothesis  of  a  succession  of  inspired 
scribes  who  from  age  to  age  revised  the  work  of 
their  predecessors  and  brought  it  up  to  date. 

The  outcome  of  this  criticism  was  that  the 
Pentateuch  is  in  some  sense  a  composite  work, 
and  in  its  present  form  much  later  than  Moses. 
No  methodical  attempt  had  been  made,  however, 
to  distinguish  its  different  strata,  or  to  discover 
the  sources  from  which  it  was  compiled.  This 
was  first  undertaken  by  an  eminent  French 
physician,  Jean  Astruc,  who  in  1753  published 
the  results  of  his  investigations  under  the  modest 
title  "Conjectures  concerning  the  Original  Me- 
moirs which  it  appears  that  Moses  used  in  com- 
piling the  Book  of  Genesis."  Astruc's  analysis 
was  suggested  by  peculiar  phenomena  in  the  use 
of  the  divine  names  in  Genesis,  and  he  was  led 
to  the  hypothesis  that  Moses  had  for  the 
primeval  and  patriarchal  history  two  principal 
sources,  one  of  which  employed  consistently  the 
proper  name  Jehovah,  the  other  the  appellative 
Elohim  (God).  The  two  narratives  were  in 
large  part  parallel,  and  when  they  were  united  in 
one  continuous  narrative,  repetitions,  contradic- 
tions, and  chronological  difficulties  were  created 
which  disappear  when  the  sources  are  separated 
and  recombined  in  their  original  sequence. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  a  history  of  criticism: 
it  must  suffice  to  say  that,  as  the  result  of  the 
labors  of  many  scholars  in  the  last  century  and  a 


THE  PENTATEUCH  33 

half  upon  the  problem  of  the  sources  and  composi- 
tion of  the  Pentateuch,  historians  are  now  gen- 
erally agreed  that  four  main  sources  are  to  be 
recognized,  of  which  three  run,  in  varying  pro- 
portion, from  Genesis  to  Numbers  and  reappear 
in  Joshua,  while  the  fourth  is  found  in  Deuter- 
onomy and  Joshua  only. 


CHAPTER  rV 

CHAKACTER  OF  THE  SOURCES:  GENESIS 

Of  the  four  main  sources  of  the  Pentateuch 
and  Joshua,  two  are  easily  recognizable,  and 
may  be  distinguished  with  certainty  in  almost 
any  combination.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy, 
though  itself  a  composite  work,  constitutes  a 
whole,  with  a  characteristic  religious  point  of 
view  and  marked  peculiarities  of  language  and 
style.  The  strand  akin  to  it  in  Joshua  is  not 
always  so  easy  to  discriminate  from  additions 
and  editorial  retouchings  in  one  of  the  other 
sources;  but  since  these  are  of  approximately 
the  same  age,  the  diflBculty  is,  from  the  historian's 
point  of  view,  not  of  very  serious  moment. 

The  second  source,  more  closely  interwoven 
in  the  narrative  of  Genesis  -  Numbers,  and 
Joshua,  has  also  such  strongly  marked  pecu- 
liarities, not  only  in  religious  ideas  and  in  phrase- 
ology and  style,  but  in  its  whole  conception  and 
treatment  of  the  history,  that  it  stands  out  in 
salient  contrast  to  any  surroundings  in  which  it 
may  occur.  Its  interest  is  concentrated  on  the 
origin  of  the  sacred  institutions  of  Israel,  es- 
pecially on  the  priesthood,  the  worship,  and  the 
distinctive  religious  customs  of  the  people,  for 
34 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  35 

which  reason  it  is  commonly  called  the  "priestly" 
history  and  law. 

The  two  remaining  sources  resemble  each 
other  much  more  closely  in  religious  conceptions, 
in  language,  and  in  their  representation  of  the 
history,  so  that,  where  their  closely  parallel  nar- 
ratives are  intimately  interwoven  to  make  one 
continuous  and  harmonious  story,  it  is  often 
impossible  to  unravel  them.  As  far  as  Exod.  iii. 
14  one  of  them  employs  the  name  Elohim  for 
God,  while  the  other  uses  Jehovah  from  the 
beginning  (see  Gen.  iv.  26),  and  this  difference 
frequently  serves  as  a  first  clue;  but  editors  and 
copyists  have  so  often,  purposely  or  thoughtlessly, 
interchanged  the  names  of  God  that  it  is  by  no 
means  a  decisive  criterion.  From  Exod.  3  on, 
this  criterion  fails  altogether.  Closer  acquaint- 
ance with  the  two  sources  discovers,  under  all 
their  similarity,  individual  peculiarities  by  which 
they  can  ordinarily  be  recognized.  Frequently, 
also,  the  connection  of  the  story  itself,  references 
or  allusions  to  incidents  already  recounted  and 
preparation  for  events  subsequently  to  be  nar- 
rated, serve  to  identify  passages  with  one  or  the 
other. 

For  the  sake  of  brevity,  it  is  customary  to 
designate  these  sources  by  symbols:  J  (Jahvist), 
the  source  in  which  God  is  from  the  beginning 
called  Jehovah  (more  exactly,  Jahveh);  E  (Elo- 
hist),  the  closely  cognate  source  in  which  Elohim 
(God)  is  consistently  used  throughout  Genesis; 
D,  Deuteronomy  and  the  kindred  narrative 
in  Joshua;  P  (Priestly),  the  source  in  which  the 


36  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

interest  in  the  religious  institutions  predominates. 
This  author  also  uses  Elohim  exclusively  in  Gene- 
sis, and  down  to  Exod.  vi.  2  ff. 

The  two  sources,  J  and  E,  both  narrate  the 
story  of  the  patriarchs  at  some  length.  J  begins 
with  the  migration  of  Abraham  from  Harran 
(Gen.  12);  the  corresponding  introduction  of 
Abraham  in  E  is  not  preserved,  and  the  first 
passage  that  can  with  confidence  be  attributed 
to  that  source  is  Gen.  20.  From  that  point 
through  Genesis  and  down  to  Exod.  24,  J  and  E 
furnished  the  author  of  the  Pentateuch  most  of 
his  narrative.  The  contents  of  both  were  evi- 
dently drawn  from  the  same  common  stock  of 
legend,  and  they  tell  in  large  part  the  same 
stories  in  variant  forms,  with  differences  of 
incident  or  of  localization.  Sometimes  one  is 
ampler  and  more  detailed,  sometimes  the  other. 
The  author  of  Genesis  in  such  cases  often  chose 
the  fuller  version,  enriching  it  here  and  there 
from  the  other;  in  other  places  the  two  are  com- 
bined in  more  equal  measure  into  one  continuous 
narrative;  or,  again,  as  in  parts  of  the  story 
of  Joseph,  extracts  from  the  two  alternate  in 
large  blocks. 

J  and  E  are,  as  has  been  said  above,  much 
alike  in  language  and  style,  yet  each  has  dis- 
tinguishing peculiarities  of  expression.  These 
of  necessity  disappear  in  a  translation,  especially 
in  a  translation  which,  like  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion, raises  everything  to  one  stately  level  of 
noble  English  prose.  Even  in  translation,  how- 
ever, a  difference  in  the  story-teller's  art  and 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  37 

manner  may  be  discerned.  For  J  the  reader 
will  find  good  examples  in  Gen.  18-19;  24; 
38;  39;  and  43-44  (which  are  nearly  solid 
extracts  from  that  source);  with  the  latter 
chapters,  from  the  story  of  Joseph,  should  be 
compared  Gen.  40-42,  chiefly  from  E.  Gen.  22 
is  also  from  E.  From  the  literary  point  of  view, 
J  is  the  better  narrator;  he  tells  his  story  directly, 
swiftly,  with  almost  epic  breadth,  and  with  just 
that  measure  of  detail  which  gives  the  note  of 
reality,  never  overloading  the  story  with  circum- 
stance. Nor  is  it  only  the  external  action  which 
he  causes  thus  vividly  to  pass  before  us;  with  the 
dramatic  instinct  of  the  true  story-teller  he 
makes  us  spectators  of  the  inner  play  of  feeling 
and  motive. 

The  religious  element  in  the  stories  of  J  is 
pervasive.  The  forefathers  are  favorites  of  God, 
who  directs  their  ways,  and  protects  and  blesses 
them  in  all  their  doings.  He  appears  to  them  in 
human  form,  and  converses  with  them  as  a  man 
with  his  friends;  reflection  has  not  yet  found 
such  too  human  behavior  unbecoming  in  God. 
Gen.  18  is  a  striking  instance  of  this  familiarity  in 
the  deity:  Jehovah  with  two  companions  comes 
to  Abraham's  tent,  eats  of  the  meal  the  patri- 
arch's hospitality  provides,  predicts  that  Sarah 
shall  bear  a  son  before  the  year  is  out  —  a  pros- 
pect which  moves  the  old  woman  listening  behind 
the  door  to  incredulous  merriment  —  and  as  he 
departs  announces  that  he  is  going  down  to 
Sodom  to  see  whether  they  are  as  bad  there  as 
has  been  reported  to  him.    A  still  more  drastic 


38  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

example  is  the  "man"  who  wrestles  with  Jacob, 
and  finding  himself  no  match  for  the  brawny- 
patriarch,  disables  him  by  a  foul,  putting  his 
hip  out  of  joint,  and  finally,  to  get  loose,  unmasks 
as  a  god,  owns  Jacob  the  winner,  and  names 
him  "Israel,"  the  man  who  held  his  own  against 
a  god  (Gen.  xxxii.  24  ff.).  Or,  again,  as  Moses  is 
on  the  way  to  Egypt  by  God's  command  to  de- 
liver his  people,  Jehovah  encounters  him  where 
he  halts  for  the  night,  and  tries  to  kill  him,  de- 
sisting only  when  Zipporah  bans  him  by  smear- 
ing her  imperiled  husband  with  the  bloody 
foreskin  of  her  son  (Exod.  iv.  24  ff.). 

Such  extremely  human  representations  belong 
to  the  ancient  legends  which  are  incorporated 
in  the  history;  the  author's  own  conception  of 
God,  if  we  may  judge  him  by  passages  like 
Exod.  xxxiii.  12-23;  xxxiv.  6-9,  was  much  less 
crude;  but  it  is  significant  that  such  traits  were 
allowed  to  remain  with  so  little  change. 

The  legends  also  attribute  to  God  a  partiality 
for  the  patriarchs  which  lets  him  protect  and 
prosper  them  in  transactions  such  as  are  repug- 
nant not  only  to  the  most  rudimentary  morality 
but  to  savage  manliness,  as  in  Gen.  12  and  26, 
variants  of  the  story  how  one  of  the  forefathers 
exposed  his  wife's  honor  rather  than  risk  his 
own  neck.  Less  striking,  but  no  less  instructive, 
is  Jacob,  who  gains  the  birthright  by  overreaching 
his  brother  and  the  blessing  of  the  first-born  by 
deceiving  his  father,  and  in  the  end  outwits 
the  wily  Laban  at  his  own  devices  and  grows 
rich  at  his  expense.     It  would  be  a  mistake  to 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  39 

take  such  stories  as  reflecting  the  morahty  of 
the  author's  time:  they  were  the  traditions  of 
another  age  and  another  order  of  things.  But 
again  it  is  significant  that  they  are  narrated  in 
J  without  any  visible  attempt  to  mitigate  their 
offensive  features.  Other  authors,  as  we  shall  see, 
toned  down  these  features  or  eUminated  them. 

The  second  of  the  authors  in  the  patriarchal 
history  (E)  is  but  little  inferior  to  J  as  a  narrator, 
and  in  translation  the  difference  is  even  less 
noticeable  than  in  the  original.  Where  they  can 
be  directly  compared,  however,  E  is  slightly  less 
vivid  and  picturesque.  A  certain  learned,  or 
antiquarian,  interest  is  also  apparent.  E  notes, 
for  instance,  that  Laban,  who  as  a  Syrian  natu- 
rally spoke  Aramaic,  called  the  boundary  cairn 
Jegar  Sahaduta,  while  Jacob  named  it  in  good 
Hebrew  Gal  *Ed  (a  popular  etymology  of  Gilead), 
and  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Israelites  in  their 
old  homes  beyond  the  Euphrates  were  heathen. 
He  is  particularly  well  informed  in  things  Egyp- 
tian; he  knows,  for  example,  the  Egyptian  names 
of  the  chief  personages  in  the  story  of  Joseph. 
It  is  in  accord  with  this  tendency  that  he  intro- 
duces the  name  Jehovah  only  after  the  call  of 
Moses  (Exod.  iii.  14  ff.),  and  for  the  patriarchal 
period  employs  only  the  appellative,  God. 

The  conception  of  deity  is  less  naive  than  in 
J:  God  never  appears  in  tangible  bodiliness  like 
a  man,  but  reveals  himself  in  visions  or  dreams, 
or  makes  known  his  will  by  a  voice  out  of  the 
unseen.  Things  objectionable  to  morals  or  taste 
are  frequently  softened  down.   In  J,  for  example, 


40  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Joseph's  brothers,  at  Judah's  instance,  sell  him 
to  the  Ishmaelites;  in  E  Reuben  persuades  them 
to  put  Joseph  into  a  dry  well,  intending  to  save 
him  from  them  and  restore  him  to  his  father; 
while  he  is  absent,  Midianites  steal  Joseph  out 
of  the  well  and  carry  him  off  to  Egypt.  Com- 
pare also  Gen.  20  (E)  with  c.  12  (J),  noting 
how  in  the  former  the  author  takes  pains  to  make 
clear  that  no  harm  came  to  Sarah,  and  that 
Abraham  is  a  prophet  whose  intercession  is 
effectual  with  God.  On  the  other  hand,  the  inter- 
ventions of  God  in  E  often  show  a  disposition  to 
magnify  the  miracle  and  to  give  it  a  magical 
character.  Thus  at  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea, 
in  J  the  waters  are  driven  back  by  a  strong  wind, 
leaving  the  shallow  basin  dry;  in  E  the  miracle 
is  wrought  by  Moses  with  his  wand  (like  the 
plagues),  and  this  representation  is  followed  by 
P,  in  which  the  waters  stand  in  walls  on  either 
hand  while  the  people  march  between. 

If  the  author  of  E  was  acquainted  with  J,  as 
it  would  be  natural  to  assume,  he  certainly  does 
not  copy  him;  of  literary  dependence  in  a  strict 
sense  there  is  no  sign.  The  two  appear,  rather,  to 
be  parallel  narratives,  drawing  on  a  common 
stock  of  tradition,  which  had  already  acquired 
by  repetition,  whether  oral  or  written,  a  com- 
paratively fixed  form.  This  common  stock 
included  traditions  of  different  groups  of  tribes 
and  of  holy  places  in  different  parts  of  the  land. 
As  might  be  supposed,  the  tribes  seated  in  cen- 
tral Palestine,  with  their  kinsmen  east  of  the 
Jordan,  which  constituted  the  strength  of  the 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  41 

Idngdom  of  Israel,  make  the  largest  contribution; 
Judah  with  its  allied  clans  in  the  south  comes 
second. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  common  tradition  in  J 
and  E,  respectively,  local  or  national  interests 
appear,  from  which  it  is  generally  inferred  that 
E  was  written  in  the  Northern  Kingdom  (Israel) 
and  J  in  the  Southern  (Judah).  The  question 
of  the  age  of  these  writings  can  be  more  profit- 
ably considered  at  a  later  stage  of  our  inquiry. 

The  patriarchal  history  which  begins  with  the 
migration  of  Abraham,  Gen.  12,  is  preceded  by 
what  may  be  called  the  primeval  history  of  man- 
kind. Gen.  1-11.  In  these  chapters  E  is  not  rep- 
resented, and  it  seems  probable  that  the  Israelite 
historian  began  his  book  with  Abraham.  The 
primeval  history  as  we  read  it,  therefore,  is  de- 
rived in  part  from  J,  in  part  from  P.  From  J 
come  Gen.  ii.  4Mv.  25;  vi.  1-8;  a  part  of  the 
composite  story  of  the  Flood  (vii.  1-5,  7-10,  12, 
17^,  22-23;  viii.  6-12,  13^,  20-22);  the  sons  of 
Noah,  ix.  18-27,  and  part  of  the  table  of  nations 
(x.  8-19,  21,  24-30);  the  Tower  of  Babel  (xi.  1-9). 
These  pieces  do  not  form  a  literary  unity, 
and  they  give  evidence,  as  we  should  expect, 
of  diverse  origin.  There  are  some  among  them 
which  imply  a  continuous  development  of  civili- 
zation, unbroken  by  the  catastrophe  of  the  Del- 
uge, and  Noah  himself  was  originally  an  agri- 
cultural figure,  the  first  vine-dresser  and  maker 
of  wine,  not  the  navigator  of  the  ark.  The  tradi- 
tion which  ascribes  the  invention  of  the  arts  of 
primitive   civilization   to    descendants    of    Cain 


42  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

(Gen.  iv.  17-24)  is  obviously  of  different  origin 
from  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel.  Closer  inspec- 
tion shows  that  the  narrative  of  J  in  Gen. 
1-11  is  composed  of  two  strands,  each  having  a 
consistency  and  continuity  of  its  own,  and  similar 
phenomena  appear  in  subsequent  parts  of  the 
history  from  Genesis  to  Samuel. 

If  these  various  elements  are  alike  designated 
by  the  symbol  J,  it  is  because  they  exhibit  the 
peculiarities  of  conception  and  expression  which 
characterize  that  work.  The  God  who  walks  for 
pleasure  in  his  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day, 
misses  his  gardeners,  and  finding  that  they  have 
eaten  the  forbidden  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge, drives  them  out  of  the  garden  for  fear  they 
might  also  put  out  their  hands  to  the  tree  whose 
fruit  gives  immortality,  or  who  comes  down  to 
see  the  tower  the  Babylonian  heaven-stormers  are 
building,  and  apprehending  more  presumptuous 
attempts  from  their  success,  breaks  up  their  con- 
cert by  the  ingenious  device  of  making  them  talk 
different  languages,  is  plainly  imagined  in  quite 
the  same  way  as  the  God  who  visits  Abraham 
on  his  way  to  Sodom  or  wrestles  with  Jacob  or 
tries  to  kill  Moses  on  the  road  to  Egypt.  Even 
more  primitive  is  the  fragment.  Gen.  vi.  1-4,  tell- 
ing how  deities,  captivated  by  the  charms  of 
mortal  women,  begot  with  them  a  mythical  race 
of  giants. 

The  Deluge  has  long  been  known  to  be  a 
Babylonian  myth,  which  now  forms  an  episode 
in  a  poem  celebrating  the  exploits  of  a  hero  named 
Gilgamesh.     But,  though  preserving  even  such 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  43 

details  of  the  Babylonian  original  as  the  sending 
out  of  the  birds,  the  Hebrew  author  has  im- 
pressed upon  it  the  stamp  of  his  own  religion, 
effacing  its  polytheistic  features,  and  making  the 
Flood  a  just  judgment  on  universal  sinfulness; 
while  for  the  Babylonian  hero  he  substituted  a 
figure  of  Palestinian  legend,  and  shows  his  inland 
bringing-up  by  converting  the  ship  into  an  enor- 
mous box.  It  has  frequently  been  assumed  or 
asserted  that  others  of  these  myths  of  the  early 
world,  particularly  the  Garden  in  Eden  and  the 
Tower  of  Babel,  are  also  of  Babylonian  origin, 
but  no  parallels  to  them  have  as  yet  been  dis- 
covered, nor  does  internal  evidence  point  that 
way. 

The  scenery  in  the  Garden  in  Eden  is  naive 
enough,  but  the  problem  of  the  myth  is  one  which 
has  exercised  the  minds  of  men  through  all  time: 
Why  is  man  mortal?  or,  as  it  is  usually  put  in 
myths.  How  did  man  fail  of  immortality?  Two 
other  persistent  questions  are  here  joined  with 
it.  Why  has  man  to  work  so  hard  for  a  living? 
and  Why  must  women  bear  children  with  pangs 
and  peril?  The  answer  evinces  a  reflection  of 
which  we  often  think  primitive  philosophy  incap- 
able: man  aspired  to  a  knowledge  that  God  jeal- 
ously kept  to  himself  —  he  would  not  respect 
his  limitations. 

The  third  chief  narrative  source  in  the  Pen- 
tateuch, commonly  called  the  Priestly  History 
(P),  is  of  a  different  character  from  those  which 
we  have  been  examining.  A  more  descriptive 
title  for  it  would  be,  Origins  of  the  Religious  In- 


44  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

stitutions  of  Israel.  In  the  view  of  the  author, 
these  institutions  were  successively  ordained  by 
God  at  certain  epochs  in  the  history  of  mankind 
and  in  connection  with  certain  historical  events; 
these  events  he  narrates  as  the  occasion  or  ground 
of  the  institution,  which  the  subsequent  observ- 
ance recalls  and  commemorates.  These  institu- 
tions were  not  all  first  revealed  to  Israel  and  pre- 
scribed for  it;  on  the  contrary,  the  author  has 
a  theory  of  a  progressive  revelation  of  God's  will, 
beginning  with  the  first  man  and  woman,  and 
amplified  from  age  to  age  by  the  addition  to  its 
contents  of  fresh  ordinances,  while  at  the  same 
time  its  extension  gradually  narrows,  until,  in 
the  Mosaic  Law,  it  is  addressed  to  the  chosen 
people  of  Israel  alone.  The  place  of  each  new  in- 
stitution is  therefore  fixed  not  only  in  a  chrono- 
logical system  but  in  the  genealogical  scheme  of 
races  and  nations.  The  genealogies  which  con- 
nect one  epoch  of  revelation  with  the  following 
one  are  thus  not  the  bare  bones  of  history,  stripped 
of  its  flesh  and  blood,  but  serve  a  distinct  and 
characteristic  purpose. 

The  Origins  begin  with  the  creation  of  the 
world  (Gen.  i.-ii.  4),  and  a  comparison  of  this  ac- 
count with  that  of  J  in  2-3  well  illustrates  the 
difference  between  the  two  sources.  The  God  of 
P  is  not  one  who  fashions  man  and  beast  out  of 
clay  and  breathes  with  his  own  lips  into  the  work 
of  his  hands  the  breath  of  life;  he  stands  above 
and  apart  from  the  world,  and  creates  all  things 
by  fiat:  "Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light" 
—  so  in  sublime  simplicity  the  formula  runs.    The 


CHARACTER  OF  SOURCES:  GENESIS  45 

creative  acts  are  six  natural  days :  "  Evening  came 
and  morning  came,  a  first  day."  "And  he 
rested  (kept  sabbath)  on  the  seventh  day  from 
all  his  work  which  he  had  made.  And  God  blessed 
the  seventh  day  and  made  it  holy,  because  on  it 
he  rested  from  all  his  creative  work."  The  ordi- 
nance of  the  sabbath  thus  has  its  origin  and  sanc- 
tion in  the  creation  itself,  and  this  is  alleged  in 
the  Decalogue  (Exod.  xx.  11)  as  the  motive  for 
man's  sabbath-keeping. 

The  Flood  gives  occasion  to  the  blessing  of 
Noah  and  his  sons,  in  which  for  the  first  time 
animal  food  is  permitted,  —  like  many  of  the  an- 
cients, P  made  the  first  men  vegetarians,  —  and 
with  this  license  is  coupled  a  prohibition  of  flesh 
with  blood  in  it  and  the  sentence  of  God  upon 
murder,  "Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man 
shall  his  blood  be  shed;  for  in  the  image  of 
God  made  he  man."  These  commandments, 
given  to  Noah,  are  binding  on  all  mankind,  his 
descendants.  The  genealogies  of  the  antedilu- 
vians connect  the  creation  with  the  Flood  and 
serve  also  the  chronology;  genealogies  of  the 
descendants  of  Noah's  sons  follow,  the  chro- 
nology attaching  to  the  line  of  Shem  down  to 
Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham. 

Abraham's  migration  to  Canaan  and  the  birth 
of  Ishmael  are  briefly  told,  and  then,  at  large, 
the  covenant  with  Abraham,  the  promise  of  a  son 
by  Sarah,  and  the  institution  of  circumcision, 
which  is  an  ordinance  for  all  the  Abrahamic 
peoples,  the  Arab  descendants  of  Ishmael  as  well 
as  the  Israelites  and  Edomites  sprung  from  Isaac, 


46  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

and  for  their  slaves,  home-born  or  foreign.  The 
only  other  incident  in  Abraham's  hfe  of  which  P 
gives  a  fuller  account  is  the  purchase  from  the 
sons  of  Heth  of  the  cave  of  Macpelah,  the  burial- 
place  of  the  patriarchs;  meager  notices  of  mar- 
riages and  deaths,  and  tedious  pedigrees  take 
the  place  of  the  vivid  stories  of  J  and  E.  The 
contrast  is  most  striking  in  the  case  of  Joseph, 
about  whom  we  have  from  P  only  a  few  verses. 
Doubtless  this  is  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
author  of  thei  Pentateuch  preferred  the  richer 
narrative  of  his  other  sources,  but  what  is  pre- 
served of  P  shows  clearly  enough  that  his  history 
of  Joseph,  even  when  complete,  was  brief  and 
dry. 

The  diction  and  style  of  P  are  very  unlike  that 
of  J  and  E;  a  favorable  example  of  his  manner  is 
Gen.  17.  Even  in  a  translation,  which  necessarily 
obliterates  much,  some  of  the  author's  peculiari- 
ties can  be  observed,  foremost  among  them  a  cer- 
tain stiffness  and  a  laborious  circumstantiality, 
which  will  be  felt  if  Gen.  xvi.  1-2,  4-8, 11-14  (J) 
or  xvi.  8-21  (E)  be  compared  with  c.  17  (P).  In 
Gen.  1,  thanks  to  the  subject,  this  dry  simplicity 
gives  an  impression  of  sublimity;  but,  in  general, 
narration  is  not  the  author's  best  gift.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  conception  of  God,  as  we  have 
seen  in  Gen.  1,  is  more  elevated  than  in  either  of 
the  other  sources;  and  in  the  little  P  tells  of  the 
patriarchs  their  deportment  is  unimpeachable. 


CHAPTER  V 

EXODUS,   LEVITICUS,   NUMBERS 

In  the  early  chapters  of  Exodus  the  narrative 
is  chiefly  a  combination  of  J  and  E;  the  first  con- 
siderable extract  from  P  is  Exod.  vi.  2-vii.  13, 
recalling  the  covenant  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  announcing  its  approaching  fulfill- 
ment, adding,  as  the  signature  of  the  new  epoch  of 
the  history  now  opening,  the  revelation  of  the 
name  God,  Jehovah  (Jahveh),  which  none  of  the 
patriarchs  had  known. 

I  In  the  story  of  the  plagues  all  three  sources 
are  interwoven;  a  distinctive  feature  of  P  is  that 
Aaron  with  his  wand,  under  Moses'  direction, 
brings  the  plagues  to  pass.  The  announcement 
of  the  last  plague  is  the  occasion  for  P  to  intro- 
duce the  ordinance  of  the  Passover.  The  houses 
of  the  Israelites  are  to  be  marked  by  the  blood 
of  the  victim  on  the  door-posts  and  lintel:  when 
Jehovah  passes  through  the  land,  smiting  dead 
all  the  first-born  of  the  Egyptians,  he  will  "skip" 
the  houses  so  protected  —  thus  the  name  of  the 
feast  is  explained  (Exod.  xii.  1-13).  To  this  is 
annexed  a  law  for  the  observance  of  the  feast  of 
Unleavened  Bread,  which  in  Palestine  immedi- 
ately followed  the  Passover  (xii.  14-20).  With 
the  institution  of  the  Passover  is  connected  also  a 
47 


48  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

change  in  the  calendar:  henceforth  the  month 
of  the  vernal  full  moon  (March-April)  is  to  be 
the  first  of  the  year.  It  was  so  in  the  ecclesiastical 
calendar  of  later  times,  but  the  civil  New  Year 
was,  and  still  is,  in  the  Autumn. 

All  the  strands  of  the  triple  narrative  lead  to 
a  holy  mountain  in  the  desert  (Sinai  in  P  and 
probably  in  J;  Horeb  in  E  and  D),  the  Mount  of 
God,  represented  in  all  as  the  ancient  seat  of 
Jehovah.  It  was  on  this  mountain  that  God 
appeared  to  Moses  and  bade  him  return  to  Egypt 
to  deliver  Israel :  when  he  had  brought  the  people 
out  of  Egypt,  they  should  worship  at  this  moun- 
tain. Thither,  therefore,  Moses  directs  their 
way  after  crossing  the  Red  Sea.  In  all  the 
sources  God's  presence  is  manifested  by  cloud 
and  fire  upon  the  mountain,  and  Moses  goes 
to  the  summit  to  meet  God  (Exod.  19,  J,  E; 
xxiv.  15^-18^,  P).  These  imposing  preparations 
portend  a  revelation  of  no  common  moment;  and 
the  whole  situation  bids  us  expect  the  organic 
law  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  the  things  which 
he  requires  of  his  worshipers. 

We  find,  in  fact,  in  each  of  the  three  sources 
at  this  point  larger  or  smaller  groups  of  laws 
purporting  to  be  delivered  to  Moses  at  the  holy 
mountain,  and  containing  what  may  be  regarded 
as  fundamental  institutions.  These  bodies  of  law 
are,  however,  very  different;  the  problem  of  their 
relation  to  one  another  and  to  the  narratives  is 
extremely  difficult,  and  the  parallel  account  of  the 
legislation  at  Horeb  in  Deut.  5  adds  another  ele- 
ment to  the  complication.     If  the  reader  will 


EXODUS,  LEVITICUS,  NUMBERS       49 

attentively  compare  Exod.  20;  21-23;  24;  Deut. 
5;  ix.  8-x.  5;  and  Exod.  34,  he  will  get  some  im- 
pression of  the  nature  of  the  difficulties.  Ac- 
cording to  Deut.  V.  22,  the  Decalogue  (Deut.  v. 
6-21;  Exod.  xx.  1-17,  with  noteworthy  variants) 
was  the  law  written  on  the  two  tables  of  stone  by 
the  hand  of  God  which  Moses  dashed  down  and 
shattered  when  he  saw  the  people  wantoning 
around  the  golden  calf  (Exod.  xxxii.  19).  God 
proposes  to  reproduce  the  law  on  two  new  tablets 
(xxxiv.  1),  but  the  Decalogue  (xxxiv.  28)  written 
on  these  tablets  (xxxiv.  14-26)  is  wholly  different 
from  that  of  Exod.  20,  being  not  a  compend  of 
moral  law,  but  prescriptions  for  the  festivals  and 
ritual  rules,  whereas  Deut.  ix.  8-x.  5  says  in  so 
many  words  that  it  was  the  Decalogue  of  v.  6-21 
which  was   restored. 

It  is  impossible  to  discuss  these  problems  here. 
It  must  suffice  to  say  that  they  arise  in  part  from 
the  attempt  to  harmonize  radically  different  rep- 
resentations of  what  the  fundamental  law  given 
at  Sinai  (or  Horeb)  was,  in  part  from  the  tendency 
of  later  times  to  ascribe  to  the  original  Mosaic 
legislation  the  whole  body  of  actual  law  regarded 
as  having  a  religious  sanction.  To  the  latter 
cause  we  may  without  hesitation  attribute,  for 
example,  the  introduction  of  the  fragmentary 
remains  of  a  Palestinian  civil  code  in  Exod.  21- 
22,  to  which  other  remnants  of  diverse  origin  have 
been  attached,  as  well  as  the  great  mass  of  ritual 
and  ceremonial  laws  which  are  thrust  into  the 
framework  of  P. 

The  fundamental  law  of  J,  the  basis  of  the  orig- 


50  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

inal  compact  between  Jehovah  and  Israel,  is  pre- 
served in  Exod.  xxxiv.  1-5,  10*,  14-28  (with  some 
manifest  amplifications  in  vss.  15,  16,  24).  When 
this  was  combined  with  the  story  of  the  golden 
calf  and  the  broken  tables  (E),  it  was  necessary 
to  take  it  as  a  renewal  of  the  law,  and  this  was  ac- 
complished by  very  slight  additions  in  vss.  1  and 

4  ("like  unto  the  first,"  "that  were  on  the  first 
tables,  which  thou  brakest"). 

What  the  Horeb  constitution  in  E  originally 
was,  is  less  confidently  to  be  determined.  In  the 
form  in  which  E  was  read  by  the  authors  of  Deut. 

5  and  of  ix.  8-x.  5  (end  of  the  seventh  century  or 
later),  it  was  the  Decalogue  only  (Deut.  v.  22  f.); 
but  it  is  not  certain  that  this  was  the  oldest  rep- 
resentation. There  are  other  evidences  that  E 
was  revised  and  enlarged  in  the  seventh  century 
by  an  author  who  was  influenced  by  the  prophets, 
particularly  by  Hosea;  and  the  story  of  the  golden 
calf  (with  which  the  Decalogue  narrative  is  closely 
connected),  a  condemnation  in  advance  of  the  Is- 
raelite worship  of  Jehovah  in  the  image  of  a  bull, 
may  have  been  introduced  in  this  edition,  as  the 
repudiation  of  the  sacrifice  of  children  to  Jehovah 
in  the  story  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  (Gen.  22)  prob- 
ably was. 

In  P  the  case  is  clearer.  According  to  his  theory 
all  the  ordinances  of  worship  were  revealed  at 
Sinai.  Legitimate  sacrifice  presupposes  one  legit- 
imate temple  and  altar,  a  legitimate  priesthood, 
and  a  minutely  prescribed  ritual.  In  J  and  E  the 
patriarchs  set  up  altars  and  offer  sacrifice  in  many 
places;  it  is  an  obvious  interest  of  the  authors,  or 


EXODUS,  LEVITICUS,  NUMBERS       51 

of  the  local  legends  of  holy  places  which  they  fol- 
low, to  trace  the  origin  of  the  altars,  sacred  stones, 
holy  trees  and  wells,  at  Shechem  or  Bethel,  He- 
bron or  Beersheba,  to  one  of  the  forefathers.  In 
P,  on  the  contrary,  the  patriarchs  never  offer 
sacrifice.  Until  the  tabernacle  was  erected  and 
God's  presence  filled  it,  until  Aaron  was  conse- 
crated as  priest,  until  the  technique  of  the  various 
species  of  offering  had  been  revealed  by  God  and 
exemplified  by  Moses  or  Aaron,  no  sacrifice  could 
be  anything  but  impious,  like  the  worship  of 
heathen. 

Accordingly,  the  first  thing  God  does  when 
Moses  goes  up  into  the  mount  is  to  give  him  plans 
and  specifications  for  a  sacred  tent  —  a  portable 
temple  —  with  all  its  furniture,  an  altar  for  sac- 
rifice in  the  court  before  it,  the  vestments  of  the 
priests,  and  the  apparatus  of  the  high-priestly 
oracle,  and  to  reveal  in  detail  the  ritual  for  the 
consecration  of  priests  (Exod.  25-30) .  The  mak- 
ing of  the  tabernacle  and  all  the  other  things  nec- 
essary for  the  complete  cultus  is  described  in 
Exod.  35-40;  the  consecration  of  the  priests  and 
the  inaugural  sacrifices  by  Aaron  in  Lev.  8-9; 
Lev.  X.  1-7  is  closely  connected  with  cc.  8-9,  and 
its  sequel  (combined  with  other  matter)  is  found 
in  c.  16,  the  ritual  of  atonement.  Leviticus  8-9 
is  a  good  specimen  of  the  author's  method.  In  the 
form  of  a  description  of  the  sacrifices  of  consecra- 
tion and  the  inaugural  sacrifices  of  Aaron,  he 
gives  a  paradigm  for  every  variety  of  offering. 

Here  was  obviously  a  natural  place  to  introduce 
laws  prescribing  the  ritual  of  these  species  of 


52  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

sacrifice  and  the  circumstances  which  demand 
them,  and  accordingly  we  find  in  Lev.  1-7  a  col- 
lection of  such  laws,  some  of  them  (e.  g.  Lev.  1  and 
3)  unquestionably  old  both  in  substance  and 
formulation,  with  slight  adaptation  to  their  sur- 
rounding (e.  g.  "the  sons  of  Aaron,"  i.  5,  etc.),  or 
with  supplements  to  meet  new  economic  and  social 
conditions,  such  as  the  burnt  offering  of  doves 
(Lev.  i.  14-17,  cf.  vs.  2);  others  are  younger  or 
have  been  more  extensively  enlarged  and  amended. 
The  chapters  thus  represent  a  growth  in  actual  cus- 
tom and  corresponding  rule.  In  c.  4  we  may  ob- 
serve an  example  of  another  kind  of  legal  growth, 
namely,  the  systematic  development  of  princi- 
ples or  ideas.  The  scale  of  sin-offerings,  graduated 
by  the  social  station  of  the  sinner  —  the  high 
priest,  the  whole  people,  the  prince,  a  common 
citizen  —  is  consistently  thought  out  in  conform- 
ity with  a  theory.  Observe  that  the  prince  is  as- 
signed a  modest  place  next  the  bottom,  below  the 
religious  community  corporately,  while  the  priest 
takes  his  at  the  top.  We  can  say  with  full  con- 
fidence that  this  elaborate  ritual  is  not  the  book- 
ing of  usage,  but  is  a  product  of  sacerdotal  theory; 
and,  further,  that  so  long  as  kings  reigned,  the 
most  high-church  ecclesiastic  is  not  likely  to  have 
arrogated  so  much  to  himself,  or,  at  least,  to  have 
proclaimed  his  ambitions.  Only  in  days  when, 
under  foreign  governors,  the  high  priest  was 
really  the  greatest  man  in  the  community  is  such 
a  table  of  precedence  conceivable.  Whether  even 
then  this  law  was  actually  put  in  operation, 
may  be  an  open  question. 


EXODUS,  LEVITICUS,  NUMBERS      53 

The  position  of  the  sacrificial  laws,  Lev.  1-7, 
explains  itself,  as  has  been  said.  In  many  other 
cases,  however,  we  see  no  reason  why  a  subject 
is  brought  in  where  it  is.  Thus,  Lev.  11-15,  on 
various  forms  of  uncleanness  and  the  prescribed 
purifications,  to  which  x.  10  f .  seems  to  be  a 
fragmentary  introduction,  have  no  obvious  asso- 
ciation with  anything  in  the  context,  though  they 
are  introduced  appropriately  enough  before  the 
general  purification  of  the  Day  of  Atonement,  c. 
16.  The  laws,  which  read  like  the  chapters  of  an 
exactly  formulated  code  of  purity,  have  been  ex- 
panded by  the  addition  of  new  paragraphs  (e.  g. 
Lev.  xiv.  21-32, 33-53),  and  in  some  cases  changes 
in  the  ritual  may  be  recognized;  compare,  for 
example.  Lev.  xiv.  1-8  with  vss.  10-20. 

Chapters  17-26  form  a  distinct  body  of  law, 
having  certain  marked  peculiarities  of  its  own, 
notably  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  motive  of 
"holiness"  —  that  is,  the  avoidance  of  things  and 
actions  tabooed  by  the  religion  of  Israel  —  often 
coupled  with  the  appeal  to  God's  holiness,  as  in 
xix.  2,  "Ye  shall  be  holy,  for  I,  Jehovah  your  God, 
am  holy,"  or  simply  asserting  his  authority,  "I 
am  Jehovah."  On  the  other  hand,  much  in  the 
laws  of  this  Holiness  Book  (H),  as  it  now  stands, 
has  close  aflBnity  to  the  mass  of  ritual  and  cere- 
monial laws  in  Leviticus  and  Numbers.  The 
hypothesis  which  seems  best  to  explain  the  phe- 
nomena is  that  an  independent  collection  of  laws 
(or  rather  the  remains  of  such  a  collection),  char- 
acterized by  the  motive  of  holiness,  has  been  ex- 
panded and  edited  in  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the 


54  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

priestly  legislation,  while  some  laws  whicli  were 
originally  included  in  this  collection  have  been 
transposed  to  other  contexts. 

The  Holiness  Book  closed  with  an  earnest  ex- 
hortation and  warning  to  observe  all  these  laws, 
promising  the  blessing  of  God  on  obedience  and 
depicting  in  strong  colors  the  calamities  with 
which  he  will  punish  defection  (Lev.  26).  The 
position  and  prophetic  tenor  of  this  chapter  re- 
semble Deut.  28,  and  the  book  in  its  original  form 
is  apparently  the  product  of  the  same  age  with 
Deuteronomy. 

The  Origins  (P)  described  in  Exod.  28  f.  and 
Lev.  8  f .  the  choice  of  Aaron  and  his  sons  to  be 
priests  and  their  installation  in  the  sacred  oflfice. 
The  inferior  order  of  the  ministry  of  the  sanctuary, 
the  levites,  is  not  as  yet  instituted.  This  is  done 
in  Numbers,  and  indeed  with  a  certain  redun- 
dancy, for  Num.  3  and  4  independently  deal  with 
the  subject,  and  c.  18  takes  it  up  afresh  without 
any  allusion  to  a  previous  appointment.  Much 
stress  is  laid  on  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  Aaron 
and  his  sons  in  the  service  of  the  altar  and  the 
ministry  "within  the  veil";  no  Levite,  much  less 
a  layman,  may  presume  to  these  sacred  functions 
on  pain  of  death.  The  injunctions  are  fortified 
by  instances;  the  stories  of  Korah  and  his  troop 
and  of  Dathan  and  Abiram,  which  make  a  tan- 
gled skein  in  Num.  16,  show  what  a  dire  fate  be- 
falls those  who  contest  the  prerogative  of  the 
legitimate  priesthood  or  usurp  its  functions.  The 
levites  are  given  to  Aaron  and  his  sons  as  temple 
slaves  for  the  menial  work  of  the  sanctuary,  in 


EXODUS,  LEVITICUS,  NUMBERS       55 

place  of  the  first-born  Israelites  of  all  tribes  who 
would  naturally  be  dedicated  to  God,  i.  e.  to 
the  temple.  Yet,  as  ministers  of  religion,  they  are 
supported  by  a  general  tithe  of  the  products  of 
the  soil  imposed  on  all  the  people. 

The  laws  in  Numbers  present  the  same  variety 
as  in  Leviticus.  There  are  old  laws  with  modifi- 
cations and  enlargements,  and  many  others  which 
by  various  signs  betray  a  more  recent  origin. 
Num.  28-36  belong  as  a  whole  to  the  latter  class; 
cc.  28  f .  exemplify  that  growth  of  the  law  by  the 
formulation  of  sacerdotal  ideals  or  desiderata 
which  has  been  noted  in  the  case  of  Lev.  4.  It  is 
to  be  observed  that  the  narrative  of  P  has  reached 
in  Num.  xxvii.  12-23  the  end  of  Moses'  career; 
nothing  is  in  place  after  it  but  the  ascent  of  Mt. 
Abarim  and  Moses'  death  (Deut.  34).  Num.  28- 
36  thus  stand  even  formally  in  the  place  of  an 
appendix. 

The  narrative  of  P  (Origin  of  the  Religious 
Institutions)  and  the  great  mass  of  ritual  and 
ceremonial  laws  in  the  three  middle  books  of  the 
Pentateuch  are  often  called  collectively  the 
Priests'  Code.  The  name  naturally  suggests  to 
the  English  reader  an  orderly  body  of  law,  com- 
piled, revised,  and  promulgated  by  some  author- 
ity; and,  in  fact,  many  critics  —  except  for  the 
orderliness,  which  nobody  has  ventured  to  affirm, 
and  with  allowance  for  later  additions  —  regard 
the  Priests'  Code  as  such  a  law  book,  compiled 
and  edited  by  priestly  scribes  in  Babylonia, 
brought  to  Judcea  by  Ezra,  with  the  authority  of 
the  Persian  king,  to  reform  the  many  disorders 


56  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

that  existed  there,  and  ratified  and  put  in  force 
in  444  B.  c.  by  the  magnates  and  the  people  of  the 
Jews.  (See  Ezra  7;  Neh.  8-10,  and  below,  pp. 
127  ff.)  Internal  evidence  of  such  an  origin  and 
destination  is,  however,  sought  in  vain  in  the  laws; 
the  things  that  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  most  zeal- 
ous about,  especially  the  veto  on  mixed  marriages, 
do  not  stand  out  in  the  so-called  Priests'  Code  as 
they  do  in  other  parts  of  the  law,  while  about  a 
reform  of  the  cultus  in  Jerusalem  in  conformity 
with  a  new  ritual  introduced  from  Babylonia,  the 
story  of  Ezra's  doings  is  significantly  silent. 

The  phenomena  we  have  observed  in  Exodus- 
Numbers  suggest  the  hypothesis,  rather,  that 
various  old  laws,  dealing  chiefly  with  sacrifice  and 
with  the  rules  of  clean  and  unclean  —  the  two 
principal  subjects  of  priestly  regulation  —  were 
inserted  at  suitable  points  in  the  Origins  of  the 
Religious  Institutions  (P) ;  these  received  amend- 
ments and  supplements  both  before  and  after  their 
incorporation;  other  more  independent  develop- 
ments, whether  representing  actual  custom  or 
sacerdotal  aspirations,  found  place  among  or  be- 
side them;  and  thus  the  whole  Priestly  stratum 
grew  by  a  process  of  accretion  through  many 
generations  into  its  present  inorganic  magnitude. 
It  is  antecedently  probable  that  this  process  went 
on  in  Palestine,  where  the  ritual  laws  were  a  prac- 
tical concern,  rather  than  in  the  schools  of  Baby- 
lonia; and  only  strong  evidence  to  the  contrary 
could  overcome  this  presumption. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DEUTERONOMY 

Deuteronomy  purports  to  contain  the  laws 
under  which  Israel  is  to  live  in  the  land  of  Canaan. 
It  deals  with  the  conditions  of  an  agricultural 
people,  settled  in  towns  and  villages,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  native  population  to  the  contamination 
of  whose  religion  and  morals  the  Israelites  are 
exposed.  This  legislation  was  revealed  to  Moses 
at  Horeb  (Deut.  v.  28-33),  but,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  not  to  go  into  effect  until  Israel  was  estab- 
lished in  the  possession  of  Canaan,  being  in  fact 
wholly  inapplicable  to  nomadic  conditions  —  a 
consideration  of  which  P,  in  its  code  of  worship, 
is  oblivious  —  it  was  not  promulgated  till  the 
moment  when  the  people,  encamped  opposite 
Jericho,  was  on  the  point  of  invading  Palestine. 
Then  the  aged  Moses,  about  to  lay  down  his 
office  and  his  life,  delivers  to  the  people,  in  na- 
tional assembly,  the  law  by  which  they  are  in 
future  to  be  governed,  and  adds  his  most  urgent 
injunctions  and  solemn  warnings  to  be  faithful  to 
their  religion  and  the  law  of  their  God. 

The  book  is  thus  almost  wholly  in  the  form  of 
address,  and  the  hortatory  note  is  insistent.  As 
an  introduction,  Moses  briefly  recalls  the  history 
of  the  wanderings,  from  Horeb  on,  impressing  at 

57 


58  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

every  turn  the  lessons  of  their  experience  (Deut. 
1-3) ;  the  material  is  taken  chiefly  from  E's  nar- 
rative, which  it  was  intended  to  supersede  in  an 
independent  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  There  fol- 
lows a  hortatory  discourse  (iv.  1-40),  closely  akin 
to  cc.  29-30.  The  last  acts  and  the  death  of 
Moses  are  narrated  in  confused  fashion  in  c.  31; 
xxxii.  48-52;  34.  The  Song  of  Moses  (c.  32),  and 
the  Blessing  of  Moses  (c.  33),  are  apparently  in- 
dependent compositions  which  have  been  given 
an  appropriate  place  at  the  end  of  the  book.  The 
core  of  Deuteronomy  is  cc.  5-11;  12-26;  28. 
Speaking  generally,  the  first  part  (cc.  5-11)  ex- 
pounds the  fundamental  principles  of  religion, 
while  the  second  (cc.  12-26)  contains  special 
laws,  and,  as  a  fitting  and  effective  conclusion  of 
the  whole,  c.  28  sets  forth  the  blessings  which  God 
will  bestow  on  Israel  if  it  keeps  his  commandments 
and  the  curses  it  will  incur  by  unfaithfulness  and 
disobedience.  The  special  laws,  particularly  in 
Deut.  22  ff.,  are  similar  in  character  to  those  in 
Exod.  21-23  and  in  Lev.  17-25,  and  doubtless 
embody  in  the  main  ancient  custom;  but  beside 
them  are  provisions  of  a  singularly  Utopian  kind, 
such  as  those  on  the  conduct  of  war  in  c.  20  and 
the  septennial  canceling  of  all  debts  (xv.  1-11). 
The  conception  of  religion  which  dominates 
the  whole  book,  but  is  most  conspicuous  in  cc. 
5-11,  is  the  highest  in  the  Old  Testament.  There 
is  but  one  God,  supreme  in  might  and  majesty, 
constant  in  purpose,  faithful  to  his  word,  just  but 
compassionate;  he  is  not  to  be  imaged  or  imagined 
in  the  Hkeness  of  anything  in  heaven  or  on  earth; 


DEUTERONOMY  59 

idolatry,  divination,  and  sorcery  are  strictly  for- 
bidden. The  essence  of  religion  is  love  (Deut.  vi. 
4),  the  love  of  God  to  his  people  and  their  re- 
sponsive love  to  him  is  the  ruling  motive  in  wor- 
ship and  conduct.  In  the  relations  of  men  to  their 
fellows,  whether  countrymen  or  strangers,  and  to^ 
the  brute  creation,  humanity  and  charity  are 
the  prime  virtues;  the  Utopian  features  of  the 
laws  are  such  only  because  they  push  the  ideal  of 
humanity  too  hard  for  unideal  human  nature. 

What  is  most  characteristic  in  the  Deutero- 
nomic  legislation,  the  thing  on  which  it  dwells  with 
insistent  iteration,  is  that  Jehovah  will  be  wor- 
shiped only  at  one  place,  to  be  chosen  by  himself 
in  the  territory  of  one  of  the  tribes.  There  all 
sacrifices  must  be  offered,  all  festivals  celebrated. 
At  the  head  of  the  special  laws  this  fundamental 
article  is  repeatedly  laid  down  (Deut.  xii.  13-19 
—  seemingly  the  oldest  formulation  —  xii.  2-7, 
8-12,  20-27),  and  it  recurs  in  connection  with  the 
laws  concerning  the  disposition  of  God's  share  in 
man's  increase  (tithes,  firstlings,  etc.)  and  the 
annual  festivals  (Passover,  Tabernacles) . 

This  was  an  innovation  which  dislocated  the 
whole  system  of  religious  observances,  and  the 
Deuteronomic  legislation  had  to  provide  for  the 
direct  and  indirect  consequences  of  so  radical  a 
change.  By  ancient  custom  the  religious  dues 
were  rendered  and  sacrifices  offered  at  the  village 
altars  ("high  places"),  and  there  also  the  festi- 
vals were  kept  which  marked  the  seasons  of  the 
husbandman's  year;  beside  the  altar,  with  a 
simple    religious    rite,    domestic    animals    were 


60  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

slaughtered  whenever  hospitality  or  a  family  fes- 
tival gave  occasion.  If  a  man  visited  a  more  re- 
nowned sanctuary  at  a  distance  from  his  home, 
he  did  it  of  his  own  accord  and  in  his  own  time 
and  way.  The  feasts  at  the  village  altars,  at 
which  custom  prescribed  open  hospitality,  were  a 
godsend  to  the  poor  of  the  community,  many  of 
whom  would  else  seldom  have  tasted  flesh  or 
eaten  their  fill.  The  Deuteronomic  law  licenses 
the  slaughter  of  animals  at  home  without  any 
religious  rite,  and  introduces  a  plan  of  charity 
tithes  to  replace  the  hospitality  of  the  altar.  Its 
concern  for  the  levites  (that  is,  the  priests  of  the 
local  sanctuaries),  who  by  the  new  arrangement 
were  left  without  a  livelihood,  is  also  to  be  noted. 
The  motives  for  this  radical  change  in  immemo- 
rial religious  custom  are  characteristic.  In  the 
first  place,  the  "high  places"  had  been  seats  of 
Canaanite  worship  before  they  were  taken  pos- 
session of  by  the  Israelites,  and  not  only  did  the 
stigma  of  aboriginal  heathenism  cling  to  them, 
but,  in  fact,  many  heathenish  doings  were  per- 
petuated at  them  —  drunken  debauches  and 
consecrated  prostitution.  But,  further,  their  ex- 
istence seemed  to  be  incompatible  with  strict 
monotheism:  the  many  gods  were  worshiped  in 
many  places;  the  one  God  seemed  to  have  as  cor- 
ollary one  place  of  worship.  As  a  matter  of  expe- 
rience, the  localizing  of  Jehovah  at  numerous 
sanctuaries  —  Dan,  Bethel,  Gilgal,  Beersheba  — 
with  their  distinctive  traditions  and  local  pecu- 
liarities of  ritual,  doubtless  did  result,  for  the 
apprehension  of  the  common  man,  in  making  a 


DEUTERONOMY  61 

local  Jehovah,  as  happens  to  the  Virgin  and  the 
Saints  in  Catholic  countries.  For  the  Deuterono- 
mist  this  was  only  another  kind  of  polytheism: 
"Hear,  O  .Israel,  Jehovah,  our  God,  is  one 
Jehovah!"       • 

Deuteronomy  is,  therefore,  the  programme 
of  a  reform.  Fortunately,  we  know  how  this 
programme  was  put  in  execution;  the  history 
of  it  is  written  in  2  Kgs.  22-23.  In  the  course  of 
some  repairs  in  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  a  law 
book  turned  up,  the  reading  of  which  threw 
King  Josiah  and  his  advisers  into  consternation. 
After  taking  counsel  of  a  prophetess,  an  assembly 
was  convoked,  and  the  book  publicly  ratified  by 
the  notables  and  the  people  as  the  law  of  the 
realm.  Thereupon  the  king  proceeded  to  put 
the  code  in  force.  He  not  only  cleaned  house  in 
the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  where  a  miscellany  of 
foreign  gods  and  cults  was  installed,  but  he 
destroyed  and  desecrated  all  the  "high  places," 
that  is,  the  immemorial  seats  of  the  worship 
of  Jehovah  in  the  towns  and  villages  of  his 
kingdom,  pulling  the  altars  to  pieces,  smashing 
the  stone  pillars,  hewing  down  the  sacred  poles, 
and  forcibly  carrying  off  the  priests  (levites) 
to  Jerusalem,  where  he  assigned  them  a  living 
from  the  income  of  the  temple,  but  —  in  his  zeal 
going  beyond  the  law  of  Deut.  xviii.  6-8  —  ex- 
cluded them  from  sacrificial  functions. 

It  was  seen  long  ago  by  some  of  the  Church 
Fathers  that  the  law  book  which  Hilkiah  found 
and  Josiah  enforced  can  have  been  no  other  than 
Deuteronomy.     The  historian  of  the  kingdoms, 


62  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

writing  after  the  reforms  of  Josiah  and  the 
following  reaction  and  believing  that  the  pro- 
hibition of  worship  at  the  high  places  had  been 
binding  since  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple, 
is  at  pains  to  say  that  none  of  the  kings  from 
Solomon  to  Josiah,  not  even  those  to  whom 
otherwise  he  gives  the  best  mark  for  piety,  had 
paid  any  attention  to  this  law,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  a  brief  attempt  by  Hezekiah.  We 
can  go  further,  and  say  that  none  of  the  older 
historians  and  none  of  the  prophets  of  the 
ninth  and  eighth  centuries  show  any  acquaint- 
ance with  such  a  prohibition.  If  the  prophets 
assail  the  worship  at  the  high  places,  as  Hosea 
does,  it  is  on  the  ground  that  it  is  heathenish 
and  immoral,  not  that  it  is  illegitimate;  if  Hosea 
condemns  the  pilgrimages  to  Gilgal  and  Beer- 
sheba,  it  is  not  implied  that  it  would  be  better 
to  go  to  Jerusalem;  nor,  indeed,  is  any  condem- 
nation of  the  worship  at  the  high  places  more 
drastic  than  Isaiah's  of  the  cultus  in  Jerusalem. 
Before  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century 
there  is  no  thought  that  Jehovah  has  such  an 
exclusive  preference  for  Solomon's  temple. 

All  the  other  evidence  in  Deuteronomy  points 
to  the  same  age.  Its  conception  of  God  and  of 
religion  is  derived  from  the  prophets  of  the 
eighth  century.  The  influence  of  Hosea  is  par- 
ticularly plain:  that  the  essence  of  religion  is 
love  is  Hosea's  idea,  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
originality  in  religion.  The  language  and  style 
of  Deuteronomy  are  of  the  seventh  century,  in 
its  excellences  and  in  its  defects;    Jeremiah  and 


DEUTERONOMY  63 

the  author  of  Kings  have  the  closest  resemblance 
to  it  in  its  rhetorical  manner  and  in  its  peculiar 
pathos. 

On  these  grounds,  since  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  an  increasing  number  of 
scholars  have  held  that  the  book  was  written 
in  the  second  half  of  the  seventh  century  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  about  a  revolution  such 
as  actually  followed  its  well-timed  discovery; 
and  this  is  now  the  opinion  of  almost  all  who 
admit  that  the  common  principles  of  historical 
criticism   are   applicable   to   Biblical   literature. 

Deuteronomy  is  not  all  of  one  piece,  as  has  al- 
ready been  pointed  out.  Many  older  laws  were 
taken  up  into  it  at  the  beginning  or  introduced 
subsequently;  considerable  additions  were  made 
to  it  after  Josiah's  time,  and  even  after  the  fall 
of  Judah,  for  in  several  passages  that  catastrophe 
and  the  dispersion  of  the  people  are  an  accom- 
plished fact,  an  existing  situation.  It  is  only 
the  reform  programme  and  what  hangs  together 
with  it  that  can  be  definitely  dated. 


CHAPTER  VII 

AGE  OF  THE  SOURCES.   COMPOSITION  OF  THE 
PENTATEUCH 

Deuteronomy  is  a  fixed  point,  by  reference 
to  which  the  age  of  other  strata  in  the  Penta- 
teuch may  be  determined,  at  least  relatively. 
Thus  in  P  the  patriarchs  never  offer  sacrifice 
at  the  ancient  holy  places  of  Canaan,  and  the 
notion  that  legitimate  sacrifice  can  be  made 
only  on  one  altar  is  so  fundamental  an  article 
of  religion  that  the  first  thing  at  Sinai  is  the  con- 
struction of  the  tabernacle  to  be  transported 
from  one  station  to  another  in  the  desert.  The 
inference  is  plain  that  P  was  written  at  a  time 
when  the  principle  of  the  unity  of  the  sanctuary 
for  which  Deuteronomy  contends  with  the  zeal 
of  innovation  was  no  longer  disputed,  at  least 
in  the  author's  surroundings,  so  that  he  has  no 
need  to  enjoin  it,  and  can,  indeed,  ignore  the  fact 
that  there  ever  had  been  other  sanctuaries  of 
Jehovah.  Such  a  state  of  things  never  existed  ' 
while  the  kingdom  stood;  it  was  only  in  the 
Persian  period,  when  Judaea  was  reduced  to  a 
circle  of  a  few  miles  about  Jerusalem,  that  the 
conditions  implied  in  P  arose.  Only  in  that 
age,  through  political  circumstances,  did  the  high 
priests  attain  the  preeminence  to  which  P  gives 
the  sanction  of  divine  right;  and  P  itself  not 
6J. 


AGE  OF  THE  SOURCES  65 

obscurely  witnesses  that  these  towering  preten- 
sions did  not  go  unchallenged  (see  especially 
Num.  16).  With  this  all  the  other  evidence  con- 
curs: the  supramundane  conception  of  God 
and  the  avoidance  of  everything  that  seems  to 
bring  the  deity  into  too  close  contact  with  earthly 
things  or  tempts  the  imagination  to  figure  him 
too  humanly  speak  of  the  progress  of  theological 
reflection.  The  language  is  plainly  in  decadence : 
apart  from  words  which  seem  to  be  new,  and 
occasionally  foreign,  the  sentence  is  losing  its 
flexibility,  or  authors  are  losing  their  mastery 
of  it;  it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  even  the 
best  passages  in  P  (such  as  Gen.  23)  with  examples 
of  really  classical  Hebrew  prose  (say,  in  2  Sam. 
11  ff.,  or  the  stories  of  Elijah  in  Kings),  on  the  one 
hand,  and  with  the  writing  of  the  Chronicler 
(third  century  b.  c),  on  the  other,  to  see  that  P 
is  nearer  to  the  latter  than  to  the  former. 

The  age  of  the  laws  now  set  in  the  framework 
of  the  Origins  is  a  distinct  question,  or  rather,  as 
will  be  understood  from  what  has  been  said 
above,  it  is  a  separate  question  for  every  law,  and 
often  for  successive  paragraphs  of  the  same  law. 
And  behind  the  question  of  the  age  of  the  law 
in  its  present  formulation  is  frequently  the 
remoter  problem  of  the  age  of  the  institution  or 
custom.  Various  criteria  are  available  in  the 
history  of  the  kingdoms,  in  the  prophets,  in  other 
collections  of  laws,  and  in  Ezekiel's  programme 
for  the  New  Jerusalem  (Ezek.  40  ff.).  It  must 
be  enough  here  to  say  that  the  older  laws  in 
P  go  back,  substantially  in  their  present  shape, 


66  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

to  the  days  of  the  kingdom,  and  in  many  cases 
represent  a  prescriptive  usage  which  is  of  remote 
antiquity;  while  the  latest  additions  to  P  were 
made  at  a  time  so  recent  that  they  had  not  found 
entry  into  the  copies  from  which  the  earliest 
Greek  version  was  made  in  the  third  century  b.  c. 

J  and  E  are  both  older  than  Deuteronomy. 
In  Genesis,  as  has  already  been  noted,  they  recite 
ttte  foundation  legends  of  Shechem,  Bethel, 
Hebron,  Beersheba,  and  other  of  the  holy  places 
of  Canaan,  telling  how  the  patriarchs  built  the 
altars,  set  up  the  sacred  stones,  planted  the 
sacred  trees,  dug  the  holy  wells,  and  offered  sacri- 
fice to  their  own  God  at  these  spots,  by  this  origin 
legitimating  as  Israelite  sanctuaries  what  were, 
at  the  time  of  the  conquest  and  long  after, 
Canaanite  "high  places."  Similarly,  in  Joshua, 
Gilgal,  and  Shiloh  are  Israelite  foundations.  These 
were  all,  in  the  time  of  the  kingdoms,  holy  places 
of  great  repute,  frequented  by  pilgrims  from 
distant  quarters;  but  there  were  others,  of  less 
ancient  pretensions,  which  attained  equal  celeb- 
rity. Dan,  for  instance,  which  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  Israelites  in  the  time  of  the  Judges, 
claimed  a  priesthood  descended  from  Moses,  and 
became  proverbial  for  the  tenacity  with  which 
the  good  old  traditions  of  Israel  were  preserved 
there. 

The  narratives  in  Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings 
show  that  every  town  and  village  had  its  own  holy 
place,  with  an  altar  and  a  sacred  stone,  and 
sometimes  a  hall  for  feasts  (e.  g.  1  Sam.  ix.  22), 
and  that  temporary  altars  were  built  whenever 


AGE  OF  THE  SOURCES  67 

and  wherever  there  was  reason.  This  practice 
is  presumed  in  an  ancient  fragment  of  a  law, 
Exod.  XX.  24-26,  which  prescribes  that  all  offer- 
ings must  be  made  at  an  altar,  which  may  be 
a  mound  of  earth  or  a  heap  of  field-stones  (not 
hewn  stone),  and  promises  that  at  every  place 
where  God  has  given  signs  of  his  presence  he 
will  come  to  the  sacrifice  and  bless  the  offerer. 
This  rule,  which  probably  originally  stood  in  the 
context  of  J,  expressly  sanctions  the  local  altars 
and  sacrifices  which  are  so  abhorrent  to  the 
deuteronomic  reformers  of  the  seventh  century. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  strong  interest  in  the 
origins  of  the  holy  places  of  Canaan  indicates 
that  when  J  and  E  were  written  these  high  places 
were  Israelite  sanctuaries,  which  had  as  such 
their  sacred  legends;  indeed,  a  considerable 
part  of  the  patriarchal  stories  is  ultimately 
derived  from  these  legends  of  local  sanctuaries, 
which  form  a  cycle,  harmonized  and  connected 
by  a  migration  motive.  That  both  J  and  E  were 
written  long  after  the  settlement  of  the  Israelites 
in  Palestine  is  proved  even  more  conclusively  by 
the  fact  that  the  obligatory  religious  observances 
are  those  of  an  agricultural  people.  Thus  in 
Exod.  34,  in  what  was  probably  according  to 
J  the  organic  law  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  and 
is  indisputably  the  oldest  collection  of  religious 
laws  in  the  Pentateuch,  three  festivals  are  or- 
dained, at  which  every  male  is  bound  to  "see 
the  face  of  Jehovah,"  that  is,  to  appear  at  the 
high  place  with  his  offering  —  he  is  warned  not 
to  try  to  "see  Jehovah"  without  something  in 


68  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

his  hands  —  namely,  the  Feast  of  Unleavened 
Bread,  the  Feast  of  Weeks,^  and  the  Feast  of 
Ingathering  in  the  end  of  the  year.  The  first 
of  these,  as  we  know,  came  at  the  beginning  of 
the  barley  harvest,  at  the  second  the  first  fruits 
of  the  wheat  harvest  were  presented,  the  third 
celebrated  the  close  of  the  vintage  and  the  olive- 
pressing.  The  firstlings  of  the  flock  and  herd, 
if  we  may  infer  from  the  order  of  the  prescriptions, 
were  to  be  offered  at  the  feast  of  Unleavened 
Bread  in  the  Spring.  The  sabbath  is  to  be  kept  as 
a  day  of  abstention  from  agricultural  labor, 
"even  in  plo wing-time  and  harvest  thou  shalt 
rest."  The  occupations  of  a  nomad  go  on  one 
day  like  another;  the  care  of  the  flocks  cannot 
be  suspended  for  sabbath-keeping. 

It  is  difficult  to  reconstruct  the  narratives  of 
the  exodus  and  the  wanderings  in  the  desert  in 
J  and  E  as  they  originally  were.  Extensive  trans- 
positions seem  to  have  been  made  at  some  stage 
in  the  transmission,  by  which  parallel  relations 
of  the  same  occurrence  are  separated  and  appear 
as  distinct  events.  There  were  evidently  con- 
siderable differences  in  the  traditional  accounts 
which  the  earliest  authors  found  current.  The 
holy  mountain  is  in  E  named  Horeb,  in  J  (prob- 
ably) as  in  P,  Sinai;  Moses'  father-in-law  in 
the  one  is  Jethro,  in  the  other  Hobab.  In  J 
there  are  some  traces  of  a  tradition,  perhaps  the 
oldest  of  all,  in  which  there  was  no  mention  of 


*  The  older  name,  Harvest  Feast,  is  preserved  in  the  Daral- 
leL  Exod.  xxiii.  16- 


AGE  OF  THE  SOURCES  69 

Sinai;  the  Israelites  made  their  way  straight 
from  the  Red  Sea  to  Kadesh. 

A  comparison  of  J  and  E  with  the  history  of 
the  times  of  Saul  and  David  in  Samuel  and 
with  the  stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  in  Kings 
would  lead  us  to  ascribe  them  both  to  the  classic 
age  of  Hebrew  prose  of  which  those  narratives  are 
specimens.  On  the  other  hand,  in  J  and  the  older 
stratum  of  E  there  is  no  influence  of  the  pro- 
phetic movement  of  the  eighth  century  which 
left  so  deep  a  mark  on  religion  and  literature.  On 
these  grounds  J  may  be  probably  ascribed  to  the 
ninth  century,  and  E,  which  is  somewhat  younger, 
to  the  first  half  of  the  eighth.  Both  used  older 
sources,  and  both  were  revised  and  enlarged  by 
later  hands;  we  have  had  more  than  one  occasion 
to  refer  to  an  edition  of  E  which  reflects  the 
teaching  of  the  prophets,  particularly  of  Hosea. 

These  two  histories  —  the  one,  as  we  have  seen, 
Judsean,  the  other  Israelite  —  ran  so  nearly 
parallel  and  contained  so  much  matter  in  com- 
mon that  an  attempt  to  combine  them  in  one 
continuous  narrative  was  natural.  The  task 
was  accomplished  with  considerable  skill  by  a 
Judsean  historian  in  the  seventh  century,  who 
probably  introduced  variants  or  supplementary 
matter  from  other  sources.  The  author's  own 
hand  is  most  certainly  recognized  in  the  multi- 
plied and  emphasized  warnings  against  all  sorts 
of  heathenism  and  in  a  fine  tone  of  religious  reflec- 
tion on  the  history  and  its  lessons,  in  which  the 
influence  of  the  prophets  is  plainly  visible,  but 
the   peculiar   theories   of   the   seventh   century 


70  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

historians  do  not  appear.  Whether  this  history 
(JE)  extended  beyond  the  Book  of  Joshua,  and 
if  so  where  it  ended,  are  qifestions  which  must 
be  reserved  for  later  consideration. 

It  is  the  general  opinion  that  the  next  stage  in 
the  growth  of  the  Hexateuch  (Genesis  -  Joshua) 
was  the  inclusion  in  a  new  edition  of  JE  of  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  in  the  form  and  dimensions 
which  it  had  attained  in  the  generation  after 
the  fall  of  Judah;  and,  perhaps  in  connection 
with  this,  the  history  of  the  conquest  in  Joshua 
as  narrated  in  JE  was  recast  and  much  enlarged 
by  an  author  who  was  full  of  the  ideas  and 
phrases  of  Deuteronomy. 

At  a  considerably  later  time,  perhaps  in  the 
fifth  century  b.  c,  or  even  in  the  fourth,  the 
Origins  of  the  Religious  Institutions,  a  product 
of  the  Persian  period,  with  the  mass  of  laws 
that  had  been  incorporated  in  it  (see  above,  p. 
56),  was  united  with  JED,  thus  bringing  together 
into  one  volume  all  that  was  preserved  about 
the  history  down  to  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
and  all  the  various  institutions  and  collections 
of  laws  which  were  attributed  to  Moses.  The 
author  of  this  comprehensive  work,  as  was  most 
natural,  took  P,  with  its  sharply  marked  divisions 
and  outstanding  epochs,  as  his  basis,  and  intro- 
duced in  each  period  the  parts  of  JE  which 
seemed  to  him  to  belong  there.  Where  P  had  a 
parallel  narrative,  as  in  the  story  of  the  Flood,  he 
wove  the  strands  together  with  more  or  less 
ingenuity,  omitting,  in  ordinary  cases,  only  the 
most  palpable  doublets.    It  is  possible  that  the 


AGE  OF  THE  SOURCES  71 

same  author  first  incorporated  in  P  a  large  part 
of  the  so-called  priestly  laws;  it  is  more  certain 
that,  besides  the  harmonistic  changes  necessary 
in  combining  his  sources,  he  made  numerous 
additions;  but  there  is  usually  no  way  of  dis- 
tinguishing his  hand  from  that  of  earlier  or  of 
still  later  editors. 

This  hypothesis,  which,  for  all  its  seeming 
complexity,  is  doubtless  a  great  simplification  of 
the  actual  literary  history,  is  accepted  by  the 
majority  of  Old  Testament  scholars  —  with 
many  variations  in  particulars,  it  need  hardly 
be  said.  It  is  commended  to  the  historian,  not 
merely  by  the  fact  that  it  explains  the  confusion 
and  contradiction  which  reign  in  the  Pentateuch 
and  offers  a  solution  of  its  literary  problems,  but 
that,  when  the  sources  are  distinguished  and 
reconstructed  and  their  age  and  relations  deter- 
mined, they  become  historical  sources  of  great 
value  for  the  times  in  which  they  were  respec- 
tively written,  confirming,  supplementing,  or 
interpreting  the  evidence  of  the  historical  books 
and  the  prophets,  and  contributing  important 
material  of  various  kinds  to  our  knowledge  of 
civilization  in  ancient  Israel  and  of  its  religious 
development. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

JOSHUA 

In  aU  the  sources  of  the  Pentateuch  the  pos- 
session of  Canaan  is  the  goal  toward  which  the 
whole  history  moves,  from  the  call  of  Abraham 
to  the  last  exhortations  of  Moses  in  the  plains  of 
Moab,  and  they  must  all  have  narrated,  however 
briefly,  the  occupation  of  the  country.  The  his- 
tory of  the  conquest  and  division  of  Canaan  is  the 
subject  of  the  Book  of  Joshua.  The  author  has 
evidently  derived  his  material  from  diverse 
sources,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  to  find 
among  them  the  continuation  of  the  chief  sources 
of  the  Pentateuch.  This  expectation  is  verified; 
it  is  not  difficult  to  recognize  in  some  places  the 
sequel  of  the  preceding  narratives,  and  other 
passages  which  on  internal  grounds  may  confi- 
dently be  ascribed  to  one  or  the  other  of  them. 
But  the  attempt  to  analyze  the  book  discovers  at 
once  the  fact  that  the  problem  is  different  from 
that  in  Genesis  to  Numbers.  The  author  of  the 
Pentateuch  had  two  chief  narrative  sources,  a  his- 
tory compiled  probably  in  the  first  half  of  the 
seventh  century  and  in  any  case  pre-Deutero- 
nomic,  which  from  its  two  principal  strands  is  com- 
monly designated  by  the  symbol  JE,  and  the 
history  of  the  religious  institutions  (P),  prob- 
72 


JOSHUA  73 

ably  of  the  fifth  century.  The  author  of  Joshua 
had  for  his  sources,  besides  the  continuation  of  P, 
a  history  of  the  conquest  by  a  writer  belonging 
to  what  is  not  inaptly  called  the  deuteronomist 
school  of  historians,  whose  thought  and  style 
are  molded  by  those  of  Deuteronomy.  In  cc. 
1-12  the  author  of  Joshua  follows  this  source  al- 
most exclusively,  only  here  and  there  introducing 
a  passage  from  the  post-exilic  narrative  (e.  g. 
Jos.  V.  10-12) ;  in  cc.  13-24,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
allotment  of  the  tribal  territories  and  the  assign- 
ment of  cities  in  these  territories  to  the  levites  and 
the  priests,  are  chiefly  from  the  later  work.  In- 
asmuch as  the  style  of  the  deuteronomist  and  of 
the  priestly  writers  is  characteristically  different, 
the  rough  analysis  is  here  comparatively  easy, 
nor  is  it  ordinarily  difficult  to  recognize  the  brief 
passages  which  are  incorporated  from  the  older 
sources;  but,  as  in  the  Pentateuch,  the  discrim- 
ination of  the  original  contents  of  the  priestly 
source  from  subsequent  expansions  and  from  the 
hand  of  the  author  of  Joshua  himself  is  frequently 
very  uncertain.  Here  also  additions  were  made 
by  editors  at  a  still  later  time,  some  of  which  are 
not  found  in  the  Greek  version. 

A  different  and  much  more  difficult  problem  is 
presented  by  Jos.  1-12,  the  problem,  namely,  of 
the  sources  of  the  deuteronomist  history.  The 
duplication  of  the  narrative  is  very  plain  in  the 
story  of  Jericho  (Jos.  6).  One  account  told  how 
the  Israelites  marched  around  the  city  once  each 
day  for  seven  days  in  ominous  silence;  on  the 
seventh  day,  at  Joshua's  command,  they  broke 


74  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

out  in  the  war-cry,  and  rushing  upon  the  city 
from  every  side,  took  it  by  storm,  and  put  every 
living  thing  in  it  to  the  sword,  sparing  only  Rahab 
the  harlot  and  her  household.  In  the  parallel 
narrative  a  religious  procession,  the  priests  bear- 
ing the  ark  in  the  midst,  compassed  the  city  seven 
times;  on  the  last  circuit  the  priests  blew  a  fan- 
fare on  their  ram's  horns,  at  which  the  walls  fell 
flat  to  the  ground,  and  the  Israelites,  after  bring- 
ing Rahab  to  a  place  of  safety,  burnt  tli'e  city 
with  fire.  Editors  or  scribes  who  were  particu- 
larly edified  by  the  horn-blowing  start  it  prema- 
turely in  vs.  8  f.,  13,  and  have  tried  to  improve 
on  the  story  in  other  places.  The  second  ver- 
sion shows  the  same  inclination  to  glorify  the 
divine  interventions  by  giving  them  a  magical 
form  which  has  been  remarked  in  E's  account  of 
the  deliverance  at  the  Red  Sea,  while  the  simpler 
story  of  the  unexpected  assault  —  to  which  there 
is  a  close  parallel  in  a  Roman  hand-book  of  mili- 
tary stratagems  —  resembles  in  its  naturalness 
J's  account  of  the  crossing  of  the  sea. 

Both  sources  tell  of  the  rescue  of  Rahab,  and 
thus  presuppose  some  such  story  as  we  find  in 
Jos.  2,  where,  again,  duplication  is  evident.  The 
interdict  on  the  spoils  of  Jericho  (vi.  17,  J),  is 
the  antecedent  to  the  story  of  Achan,  whose  ap- 
propriation of  a  part  of  the  spoil  is  the  cause  of 
the  repulse  at  Ai  (c.  7),  and  thus  the  clues  can 
be  followed  backward  and  forward.  The  chief 
source  in  c.  8  (the  taking  of  Ai)  and  c.  9  (ruse  of 
the  Gibeonites)  also  is  J,  with  which  the  par- 
allel account  of  E  is  combined;  additions  by  later 


JOSHUA  75 

hands  are  recognizable,  the  most  remarkable 
being  viii.  30-35  (cf.  Deut.  xxvii.  1-8,  12).  In 
the  history  of  the  two  campaigns  by  which  the 
allied  kings  of  the  south  and  of  the  north  re- 
spectively were  annihilated  (Jos.  10  and  11)  both 
sources  appear.  A  considerable  part  of  these 
chapters,  however,  is  the  work  of  the  deuterono- 
mist  author,  especially  the  summary  of  the  con- 
quests, cc.  X.  28-43;  xi.  10-23.  Chapter  12, 
which  for  completeness  goes  over  the  conquests 
east  of  the  Jordan  also,  is  dependent  on  Deut.  3; 
Jos.  xiii.  2-6  (the  territories  remaining  to  be  con- 
quered) is  of  the  same  sort  and  probably  by  the 
same  hand. 

It  seems,  therefore,  that  both  J  and  E  related 
the  crossing  of  the  Jordan,  the  taking  of  Jericho, 
and  the  operations  against  Ai,  and,  further,  the 
wars  with  the  confederate  kings.  In  these  narra- 
tives Israel,  from  its  standing  camp  at  Gilgal, 
invades  the  country  as  one  great  army  under  the 
command  of  Joshua;  the  deuteronomist  author 
represents  them  as  exterminating  the  native 
population  root  and  branch,  "they  left  not  a  soul 
alive."  There  are,  however,  scattered  here  and 
there  through  the  text,  fragments  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent story  (xiii.  13;  xv.  13-19,  63;  xvii.  11-13, 
14-18;  xix.  47),  most  of  which  are  also  found 
continuously  in  Judg.  1.  According  to  this  ac- 
count, the  Israelite  tribes  invaded  the  country 
separately  or  in  small  groups;  their  success 
varied  in  different  regions,  but  everywhere  the 
walled  cities  remained  in  the  possession  of  their 
old  inhabitants;   in  some  quarters  the  Israelites 


76  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

became  subject  to  the  Canaanites,  in  others  they 
in  time  reduced  them  to  subjection.  This  ac- 
count may  not  embody  a  historical  tradition  — 
it  could  perfectly  well  have  arisen  by  inference 
from  the  actual  situation  at  the  beginning  of  the 
kingdom  —  but  it  is  at  least  in  a  broad  sense 
historical.  The  case  illustrates  in  an  instructive 
way  the  fact  that  the  oldest  literary  sources  of 
the  history  which  we  can  recover  had  themselves 
diverse  and  sometimes  contradictory  sources  in 
tradition. 

In  the  Pentateuch  it  is  well  established  that  J 
and  E  had  been  combined  by  a  historian  of  the 
prophetic  period  (JE),  though  there  is  evidence 
that  the  separate  works  continued  to  circulate. 
In  Joshua,  also,  it  is  probable  that  the  deuter- 
onomist  historian  used  the  composite  JE,  and 
that  the  harmonizing  of  these  sources  and  some 
of  the  religious  improvement  which  runs  along 
with  it  is  the  work  of  his  predecessor  who  com- 
bined the  two  sources.  It  seems  that  P  also  had 
E  independently,  and  it  is  certain  that  later  edi- 
tors of  the  deuteronomist  school  added  their 
contributions. 

The  allotment  of  the  tribal  territories,  the  des- 
ignation of  asylum  cities,  and  the  setting  apart 
of  cities  for  the  levites  and  priests,  comes  chiefly, 
as  was  said  above,  from  a  priestly  source.  How 
much  of  it  was  in  the  older  history  of  P  (Book  of 
Origins)  is  doubtful.  One,  at  least,  of  the  earlier 
narratives  told  of  the  division  of  the  land  by  lot, 
and  P,  who  followed  this  representation,  may  have 
connected  with  it  some  sort  of  domesday  book; 


JOSHUA  77 

but  it  was  probably  not  so  detailed  as  that  which 
we  now  read. 

The  assignment  of  forty-eight  cities  to  the 
priests  and  levites,  including  the  most  important 
places  in  the  country,  is  an  extravagance  even 
for  the  sacerdotal  imagination,  comparable  to 
Ezekiel's  partition  of  the  land  in  parallel  strips. 
It  is  the  counterpart  of  Num.  xxxv.  1-8,  in  a  late 
supplement  to  the  priestly  laws,  and  directly 
contradicts  the  older  principle  (Num.  xviii.  21-24) 
that  neither  priests  nor  levites  shall  have  any 
landed  property.  Thus  in  Joshua,  as  in  the  Penta- 
teuch, the  priestly  element  is  neither  of  one  sort 
nor  of  one  age;  and  again  the  evidence  of  the 
Greek  version  shows  that  additions  and  changes  2 
continued  to  be  made  in  the  text  till  the  neigh-  * 
borhood  of  200  b.  c. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  author  of  our 
Book  of  Joshua  was  the  same  as  the  author 
of  the  present  Pentateuch;  various  indications 
point  rather  to  the  contrary.  Nor  can  the  au- 
thor of  the  deuteronomist  history  of  the  conquest 
be  certainly  identified  \vith  any  one  of  the  hands 
engaged  in  the  compilation  and  enlargement  of 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy;  all  that  can  be 
affirmed  is  that  he  was  of  the  same  spirit,  and 
that  literary  dependence  upon  Deuteronomy, 
and  sometimes  on  younger  parts  of  it,  is  visible 
in  many  places  in  Joshua. 

The  Book  of  Joshua  closes  with  a  farewell  ad- 
dress by  Joshua  to  the  tribes  of  Israel  assembled 
at  Shechem,  in  which,  after  a  brief  resume  of 
God's  dealing  with  their  fathers  from  the  calling 


78  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  Abraham,  the  exodus,  and  their  own  more 
recent  experiences  down  to  the  present,  he  exhorts 
them  to  put  away  the  gods  which  their  fathers 
served  "beyond  the  river"  (in  Mesopotamia), 
and  worsliip  Jehovah  alone.  Thereupon  the 
people  solemnly  pledge  themselves  to  serve  him 
only  and  hearken  to  his  words  (Jos.  24).  There 
is  no  question  that  this  discourse  is  derived  from 
E;  a  counterpart  to  it  from  the  hand  of  the  au- 
thor of  the  deuteronomist  Joshua  stands  in  c.  23, 
and  corresponds  to  the  address  of  Moses  in 
Deut.  xxxi.  1-8.  The  sequel  of  Jos.  xxiv.  28  is 
found  in  Judg.  ii.  6-9.  The  restoration  at  a 
late  time,  of  the  old  fragment  Judg.  i.  1-36,  and 
the  division  of  the  books  at  this  point,  led  to  the 
repetition  of  the  verses  in  Jos.  xxiv.  29  ff.  The 
importance  of  this  fact  is  the  proof  it  gives  that 
E  narrated  the  history  of  the  generations  fol- 
lowing the  death  of  Joshua  as  an  apostasy  from 
the  religion  of  Jehovah  such  as  the  dying  leader 
had  warned  the  people  against  (Jos.  xxiv.  19), 
and  thus  determined  the  treatment  of  the  whole 
period  which  we  now  find  in  the  Book  of  Judges. 
The  last  injunctions  of  Joshua  in  the  deuterono- 
mist history  (Jos.  xxiii.  14-16)  exhibits  the  same 
conception  of  the  subsequent  history;  in  Judg. 
ii.  11-iii.  6,  both  E  and  the  deuteronomist  au- 
thor are  represented. 


CHAPTER  IX 

JUDGES 

The  Book  of  Judges  falls  into  three  parts, 
namely,  (1)  Judg.  i.  1-ii.  5,  which  intrudes,  as 
has  already  been  observed,  between  the  close  of 
Joshua  and  its  immediate  sequel  in  Judges  ii. 
6  ff;  (2)  Judg.  ii.  6-xvi.  31,  stories  of  a  succes- 
sion of  champions  and  deliverers  of  Israel  in  the 
centuries  preceding  the  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom; (3)  Judg.  17-18;  19-21,  two  additional 
stories  laid  in  the  time  of  the  Judges.  In  the 
Christian  Bibles  the  story  of  Ruth,  which  also  is 
said  to  have  occurred  in  the  days  of  the  Judges, 
follows. 

The  introduction,  Judg.  ii.  6-iii.  6,  gives  a  sum- 
mary of  the  whole  period :  as  soon  as  Joshua  and 
his  generation  had  passed  away,  the  Israelites 
fell  away  from  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  and  wor- 
shiped the  gods  of  Canaan;  indignant  at  this  defec- 
tion, he  allowed  them  to  be  overrun  and  subdued 
by  their  enemies;  when  in  their  distress  they 
turned  to  their  own  God  for  help,  he  raised  them 
up  champions  who  delivered  them;  but  their 
amendment  was  brief,  they  presently  relapsed 
into  heathenism;  and  so  it  went  on  from  bad 
to  worse.  In  correspondence  with  this  general 
scheme  each  epoch  in  the  history  is  opened  in 
79 


80  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

some  such  way  as  this:  The  Israelites  again  did 
what  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah;  he  deliv- 
ered them  into  the  power  of  such  and  such  a  ty- 
rant or  nation;  when  they  cried  unto  him,  he 
raised  up  so  and  so  as  a  deliverer.  Thereupon 
follows  the  story  of  the  deliverance  (see  iii.  7-11; 
iii.  12-15;  iv.  1  ff.)-  Sometimes,  as  in  vi.  1-10,  x. 
6-18,  these  preambles  are  expanded,  but  the  pur- 
port remains  the  same. 

Another  feature  of  the  book  is  the  systematic 
chronology,  in  which  the  frequency  of  the  num- 
bers twenty,  forty,  and  eighty  (forty  years  being 
in  the  Old  Testament  equivalent  to  a  generation) 
at  once  strikes  the  attention;  see  iii.  11,  30;  iv. 
3;  V.  31;  viii.  28;  xiii.  1;  xv.  20  (xvi.  31).  In 
several  other  instances  the  figures  vary  a  little  on 
either  side  of  twenty  (eighteen,  twenty-two,  etc.). 
The  duration  of  the  oppression  is  given  in  the 
introduction  of  the  story;  the  period  of  peace  and 
prosperity  which  succeeded  the  deliverance,  at 
the  end;  see,  e.  g.,  iv.  3;  v.  31.  In  the  same  way 
the  life  of  Moses  is  divided  into  three  parts  of 
forty  years  each;  Eli  judged  Israel  forty  years; 
David  and  Solomon  each  reigned  forty  years.  It 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  this  chronology  is 
artificial,  and  that  the  key  to  it  is  found  in  1  Kgs. 
vi.  1,  which  reckons  four  hundred  and  eighty 
years  (i.  e.  twelve  generations)  from  the  exodus  to 
the  building  of  Solomon's  temple;  but  the  actual 
figures  in  Judges  and  Samuel  do  not  foot  up  to 
this  sum,  and  there  are  some  gaps  in  the  series, 
namely,  the  years  of  Joshua  after  the  conquest, 
the  rule  of  Samuel,  and  that  of  Saul.    The  sym- 


JUDGES  81 

metry  of  the  scheme  has  been  broken  by  intru- 
sions or  accidental  omissions  in  the  later  history 
of  the  book. 

The  author  of  the  part  of  the  Book  of  Judges 
we  are  now  considering  (ii.  6-xvi.  31)  sees  in  the 
history  of  these  centuries  a  series  of  "oppres- 
sions" by  the  native  kings  or  by  neighboring 
peoples  which  the  IsraeUtes  brought  upon  them- 
selves by  neglecting  their  own  God  and  wor- 
shiping the  deities  of  the  Canaanites,  the  Baals 
and  Astartes.  He  is  concerned  to  impress  upon 
his  readers  the  moral  that  unfaithfulness  to  the 
national  religion  has  national  calamity  for  its 
unvarying  consequence:  God  withdraws  his 
protection  and  gives  the  people  over  defenseless 
to  its  foes,  who  invade,  despoil,  and  subjugate 
it.  This  is  making  history  illustrate  and  enforce 
the  prophetic  teaching  of  Hosea  in  the  eighth 
century  and  Jeremiah  in  the  seventh:  all  the 
calamities  that  befell  the  two  kingdoms  and 
the  ruin  which  impended  over  them  were  the 
consequence  of  their  defection  from  the  religion 
of  Jehovah  and  lapse  into  heathenism,  or,  as 
they  express  it,  the  worship  of  the  Baals;  and 
is  the  example  to  the  reiterated  warnings  in  the 
parting  addresses  of  Moses  in  Deuteronomy 
(seeDeut.  28;  29-30). 

About  the  oppressions  the  author  of  Judges 
had  clearly  no  information  independent  of 
what  he  extracted  from  the  stories  of  the  deliver- 
ances in  his  sources.  In  accordance  with  his 
theory  of  national  sin  and  national  disaster  he 
converted  what  are  in  the  stories  themselves  local 


82  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

conflicts,  involving  particular  tribes  or  regions, 
into  oppressions  and  deliverances  of  all  Israel; 
where  the  story  tells  of  raids  by  the  Midianites, 
for  example,  the  introduction  gives  them  the 
Amalekites  and  the  Eastern  Bedouins  for  allies, 
and  extends  the  devastation  these  wrought  across 
the  whole  country  to  the  neighborhood  of  Gaza. 
The  exaggeration  of  the  evils  and  the  emphasiz- 
ing of  the  moral,  as  in  other  cases,  invited  later 
editors  to  amplifications  in  the  same  spirit.  Of 
the  heroes  who  delivered  Israel  from  its  oppres- 
sors the  author  made  a  succession  of  dictators 
("judges"),  who  differed  from  the  kings  after 
them  chiefly  in  that  their  oflSce  was  not  hereditary, 
and  to  most  of  them  he  gives  in  his  chronology 
a  long  reign. 

The  setting  of  the  history  is  thus  unmistakably 
a  product  of  the  so-called  deuteronomist  school 
of  the  sixth  century  which  we  have  already 
recognized  in  Joshua,  and  shall  learn  more  of  in 
Kings.  The  stories  themselves  have,  however, 
not  been  recast  or  extensively  retouched  by 
deuteronomist  hands;   only  at  the  beginning  and 

ithe  end,  where  they  had  to  be  fitted  into  the 

I  frame,  are  such  retouches  common. 

The  author's  source  was  a  collection  of  stories 
of  struggles  in  different  parts  of  the  land,  both 
east  and  west  of  the  Jordan,  with  the  older 
settled  populations  or  with  invaders,  and  the 
exploits  of  the  leaders  and  champions  of  the 
Israelite  tribes  in  these  struggles.  It  included 
Ehud's  assassination  of  the  king  of  Moab,  the 
defeat  of  Sisera  and  the  Canaanite  kings  of  the 


JUDGES  83 

great  Plain  by  Barak  and  Deborah,  the  rout 
and  pursuit  of  the  Midianite  invaders  by  Gideon, 
and  Jephthah's  victory  over  the  Ammonites  in 
Gilead.  The  history  of  Abimelech's  kingdom  of 
Shechem  —  sequel  to  the  story  of  Gideon  — 
which  is  not  accompanied  by  the  author's  moral- 
izing comments,  and  the  stories  of  Samson, 
which  have  no  more  than  a  chronological  intro- 
duction and  close,  evidently  belong  to  the  same 
cycle  of  heroic  legends;  as  do  also  the  stories 
of  Micah's  idol  and  the  migration  of  the  Danites 
(cc.  17-18),  and  the  older  form  of  the  story  of 
the  levite  and  his  concubine  and  the  sanguinary 
vengeance  on  Benjamin  in  cc.  19-21.  The 
two  last-named  stories  were  not  comprised  in  the 
deuteronomist  Judges,  whose  doctrine  they 
could  not  well  be  made  to  exemplify.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  shall  see  that  this  work  included 
Eli  and  Samuel  among  the  judges,  and  came  to 
its  natural  conclusion  with  the  establishment  of 
the  kingdom,  as  it  began  with  the  death  of 
Joshua. 

In  several  of  the  stories  we  recognize  not 
merely  such  additions  and  improvements  as  are 
commonly  made  to  popular  tales  in  the  retelling, 
but  evidences  of  the  combination  of  two  versions 
of  the  same  exploit  or  accounts  of  other  doings 
of  the  same  hero.  This  is  particularly  plain  in 
the  story  of  Gideon,  where  in  Judg.  vii.  24  f .  (vs. 
23  is  a  harmonistic  note),  viii.  1-3,  the  business 
of  the  chiefs  of  Midian  is  effectually  finished, 
while  in  viii.  4  ff.  it  is  all  still  to  be  done.  The 
phenomenon  is  entirely  similar  to  those  which 


84  THE  OLD  TESTx\MENT 

we  have  had  repeated  occasion  to  observe  in  the 
Pentateuch  and  Joshua  and  is  to  be  explained 
in  the  same  way.  The  two  versions  of  the  story- 
had  been  united  before  the  time  of  the  author  of 
the  deuteronomist  Judges,  for  in  the  joints  of 
the  narrative  no  trace  of  his  pecuHar  motives 
or  style  occur. 

The  stories  recount  the  exploits  of  local  or 
tribal  heroes,  and  doubtless  represent  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  regions  or  tribes  concerned;  with 
the  union  of  the  tribes  under  the  kingdom,  how- 
ever, these  traditions  became  the  common  prop- 
erty of  the  nation,  and  more  than  one  writer 
made  collections  of  them.  As  in  the  patriarchal 
legends,  two  strands  may  be  distinguished,  which 
have  such  affinities  with  the  Judsean  and  the 
Israelite  histories  in  the  Hexateuch  respectively 
that  they  are  naturally  regarded  as  the  continu- 
ations of  J  and  E.  To  J  may  be  probably  at- 
tributed the  story  of  Ehud  (disregarding  the 
introduction  and  conclusion)  ,say  Judg.  iii.  16-28; 
in  the  story  of  Gideon,  viii.  4-60  (with  small 
exceptions),  and  a  part  of  cc.  6-7;  part  of  the 
history  of  Abimelech;  and  the  adventures  of 
Samson.  A  good  specimen  of  the  other  narrator 
is  the  beginning  of  the  story  of  Abimelech,  with 
the  fable  of  Jotham,  Judg.  ix.  1-25. 

Here,  again,  additions  have  been  made  at 
various  stages  of  the  transmission :  to  the  sources 
independently,  by  the  author  who  first  combined 
them,  by  the  deuteronomist  author,  and  in  some 
places  by  editors  at  a  much  later  time.  These 
hands  cannot  always  be  certainly  discriminated. 


JUDGES  85 

but  the  main  outlines  of  the  Hterary  history  are 
clear  enough.  A  peculiar  problem  is  presented 
by  the  so-called  Minor  Judges,  of  whom  nothing 
is  told  but  the  length  of  their  rule  and  the  sul- 
tanly  size  of  their  families  (Judg.  x.  1-5;  xii. 
8-15).  They  seem  to  be  brought  in  only  for  the 
sake  of  the  chronology,  the  difficulties  of  which 
they  do  not  diminish. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that,  except 
the  curt  notices  that,  the  Israelites  having 
again  offended  their  God,  he  gave  them  into  the 
power  of  the  Philistines  for  forty  years,  and  that 
Samson  judged  Israel  for  twenty  years,  the  sto- 
ries of  Samson  have  no  such  introduction  and 
conclusion  as  those  which  precede.  The  state- 
ment about  the  duration  of  Samson's  judgeship 
occurs  both  at  the  end  of  Judg.  15,  and  at  the 
end  of  c.  16,  and  it  has  been  inferred  from  this 
that  whoever  put  this  formal  close  in  xv.  20  left 
out  the  adventure  with  Delilah  and  Samson's 
tragic  end  (c.  16). 

The  stories  of  Micah  and  the  migration  of  the 
Danites  (Judg.  17-18)  and  of  the  levite  and 
his  concubine  and  the  decimation  of  Benjamin 
(cc.  19-21)  were  not  included  in  the  deuterono- 
mist  book;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
they  are  of  the  same  age  as  the  other  stories  in 
Judges,  nor  that  they  were  found  in  one  or  more 
of  the  literary  collections  of  these  stories.  In 
cc.  17-18  the  character  of  the  narrative  in  the 
main  suggests  the  same  source  with  the  stories 
of  Samson  (J),  but  there  are  some  duplications 
and  inconsistencies  which  may  be  regarded  as 


86  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

fragments  of  a  closely  parallel  account  of  not 
greatly  inferior  age.  In  cc.  19-21,  again,  the 
original  story  seems  to  be  from  J  (with  perhaps 
traces  of  another  version  in  c.  19),  but  in  the 
following  account  of  the  vengeance  taken  by 
all  Israel  on  the  Benjamites,  the  older  narrative 
has  been  united  with  a  second,  which  in  its  point 
of  view,  its  language,  and  its  unimaginable  exag- 
gerations, is  evidently  akin  to  parts  of  the 
Books  of  Chronicles,  or  to  the  youngest  additions 
to  the  Pentateuch  such  as  the  vengeance  on  the 
Midianites  (Num.  31),  and  doubtless  belongs  to 
the  most  recent  stratum  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Judges  i.  1-ii.  5,  as  has  been  pointed  out  above, 
is  foreign  to  the  connection  in  which  it  stands, 
and  can  only  have  been  introduced  there  by  a 
late  compiler  or  editor.  It  is  a  remnant  of  the 
most  historical,  and  presumably  the  oldest, 
account  of  the  establishment  of  the  tribes  in 
western  Palestine.  That,  in  completer  form, 
it  had  originally  a  place  in  the  Judsean  history 
(J)  is  unquestioned,  and  in  that  work  it  may 
have  been  closely  followed  by  stories  of  exploits 
such  as  those  of  Ehud,  Barak,  Gideon.  Inas- 
much as  it  contradicted  the  theory  of  the  com- 
plete conquest  and  extermination  of  the  Canaan- 
ites,  it  was  left  out  of  the  works  which  described 
the  conquest  in  that  way,  but  scraps  of  it  were 
subsequently  introduced  in  Joshua,  and  finally 
the  whole  restored  in  its  present  position.  It  is 
easily  seen  that  the  recurring  apostasies  into 
Canaanite  heathenism,  as  well  as  such  stories 
as  those  of  Deborah  and  Barak  and  of  Abimelech, 


JUDGES  87 

assume  that  the  Canaanites  had  not  been  killed 
off  to  the  last  man,  but,  on  the  contrary,  were 
very  much  alive;  and,  in  fact,  the  authors  of 
Judg.  ii.  20-iii.  4  feel  the  necessity  of  explaining 
why  God  had  allowed  these  heathen  to  survive. 

The  historical  value  of  the  stories  in  Judges 
is  very  great.  However  large  the  element  of 
legendary  embellishment  may  be  in  them,  they 
give  us  a  picture  of  the  social  and  religious  con- 
ditions in  the  period  preceding  the  founding  of 
the  kingdom  which  has  an  altogether  different 
reality  from  the  narratives  of  the  exodus  and  the 
wanderings. 

The  trustworthiness  of  this  picture  is  con- 
firmed by  one  contemporary  monument  of 
prime  significance,  the  triumphal  ode  in  Judg. 
5,  commonly  called  the  Song  of  Deborah,  cele- 
brating the  victory  of  the  Israelite  tribes  over 
Sisera  and  his  hosts  and  the  death  of  the  fleeing 
king  by  the  hand  of  a  Bedouin  woman  in  whose 
tent  he  sought  refuge.  The  text  in  the  middle 
of  the  poem  has  suffered  greatly,  but  the  begin- 
ning and  end  are  better  preserved,  and  display 
not  only  a  developed  poetic  art  but  poetic  inspi- 
ration of  the  highest  kind.  To  the  historian 
it  has  an  even  greater  interest  for  the  light  which 
it  throws  on  the  times:  the  independence  of 
the  tribes  on  both  sides  of  the  Jordan,  the  sub- 
jection of  those  along  the  Great  Plain  to  the  Ca- 
naanite  kings  with  their  walled  cities  and  their 
formidable  chariotry,  the  summons  to  the  strug- 
gle in  the  name  of  religion  and  the  varying  re- 
sponse, the  victory  of  Jehovah  over  his  foes.    It 


88  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

should  not  be  overlooked  that  Judah  is  ignored; 
it  was  not  counted  among  the  tribes  of  Israel. 

The  moralizing  improvement  of  the  history 
in  the  Book  of  Judges  is  not  carried  beyond  the 
story  of  Jephthah,  but  neither  at  that  point 
nor  after  the  stories  of  Samson  is  there  anything 
to  indicate  that  the  author  is  done.  The  intro- 
duction in  Judg.  ii.  11-iii.  6,  a  passage  in  which 
both  the  deuteronomist  historian  and  a  prede- 
cessor in  the  same  way  of  thinking  have  had  a 
hand,  seems  to  require  a  correspondingly  solemn 
conclusion,  and  the  example  of  Deuteronomy  and 
Joshua  suggests  that  this  would  take  the  form 
of  a  hortatory  address  such  as  Moses  and  Joshua 
deliver  as  their  testament  to  the  people.  Exactly 
such  a  discourse  is  found  in  1  Sam.  12,  where  the 
aged  Samuel,  on  the  point  of  laying  down  his 
office  as  judge,  reminds  the  people's  conscience 
of  the  chief  crises  of  the  times  of  the  judges 
in  terms  reminiscent  of  the  introduction  to  the 
Book  of  Judges  and  to  the  several  oppressions, 
upbraids  them  for  their  sin  in  desiring  a  king, 
and  closes  with  admonitions  for  the  future.  Here 
Samuel  appears  as  a  judge,  the  last  in  the  suc- 
cession; as  a  judge  he  is  represented  also  in  1 
Sam.  7,  where  he  delivers  his  people  from  the 
Philistines  in  the  great  victory  at  Ebenezer 
through  the  efficacy  of  his  sacrifice  and  prayers 
—  a  Gideon  or  a  Jephthah  went  about  the  busi- 
ness in  a  more  secular  fashion!  Eli  also  is  said 
to  have  judged  Israel  forty  years.  At  some 
stage  in  the  history  of  the  sources  of  Judges  and 
Samuel,   therefore,   Eli  and  Samuel  were  enu- 


JUDGES  89 

merated  among  the  judges,  and  the  close  of  the 
period  was  marked  by  the  address  of  Samuel 
which  we  now  read  in  1  Sam.  12.  The  contents 
and  form  of  this  address  have  their  parallels  in 
the  writings  of  the  sixth  century  or  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventh,  and  to  that  time  it  is  doubt- 
less to  be  ascribed. 


CHAPTER   X 

SAMUEL 

A  DIFFERENT  division  is  adopted  in  the  present 
books  of  Judges  and  Samuel,  in  which  the  stories 
of  EH  and  of  Samuel  are  not  made  the  close  of  the 
period  of  the  judges  but  the  prelude  to  the  history 
of  the  kingdom.  The  Greek  Bible  divides  this 
history  into  four  books  of  the  Kingdoms,  or 
rather  of  the  Reigns  of  the  Kings;  the  Hebrew, 
into  two,  Samuel  and  Kings;  the  modern  trans- 
lations employ  the  latter  names  but  adopt  the 
subdivisions  of  the  Greek,  thus  making  two  books 
of  Samuel  and  two  of  Kings.  First  Samuel  shows 
how  the  conquest  and  occupation  of  central 
Palestine  by  the  Philistines  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  national  kingdom  under  Saul,  a  Ben- 
jamite;  narrates  the  rise  o^  his  rival,  the  Judsean 
David,  and  the  feud  between  them,  down  to 
the  disastrous  battle  with  the  Philistines  at 
Mt.  Gilboa  in  which  Saul  and  his  gallant  sons 
fell.  Second  Samuel  is  the  history  of  David's 
reign  and  the  tragedy  of  his  house,  the  conclu- 
sion of  which,  the  intrigue  which  raised  Solomon 
to  the  throne  and  the  death  of  the  aged  king, 
is  treated  as  the  prelude  to  Solomon's  reign  and 
carried  over  into  1  Kings;  one  recension  of  the 
/Greek  Bible,  however,  joins  these  chapters  (1 
90 


SAMUEL  91 

Kgs.  1-2)  to  the  preceding  book.  The  two 
Books  of  Kings  recount  the  reign  of  Solomon; 
the  division  of  the  kingdom  after  his  death  into 
two,  on  the  old  line,  Israel  and  Judah;  the 
parallel  history  of  the  two  kingdoms  to  the  end  of 
Israel  in  721  b.  c;  and  the  rest  of  the  history  of 
Judah  to  its  fall  in  586. 

In  the  account  of  how  Saul  became  king  there 
are  two  contradictory  representations.  One 
of  these,  which  agrees  with  1  Sam.  12  in  treating 
the  desire  of  the  people  for  a  king  as  the  wanton 
repudiation  of  Jehovah  their  king  and  of  Samuel 
their  divinely  appointed  judge,  is  contained  in 
cc.  8;  X.  17-27;  12.  The  other,  according  to 
which  God,  seeing  the  distress  the  people  was  in 
because  of  the  Philistines,  of  his  own  motion 
resolves  to  give  them  a  king  to  deliver  them,  from 
their  oppressors,  is  in  1  Sam.  ix.  1-x.  16;  11. 
In  c.  9  Samuel  appears  as  a  seer  with  a  neigh- 
borhood reputation  of  being  able  to  tell  where 
people's  stray  asses  have  gone,  not  as  the  prophet 
and  judge,  the  first  man  of  his  time. 

These  strands  can  be  followed  in  both  direc- 
tions beyond  the  chapters  named:  1  Sam.  xiii. 
1-xiv.  46  belongs  to  the  second,  which  we  may 
call  the  national  version  of  the  matter;  c.  15 
attaches  itself  to  the  other,  say  theocratic,  rep- 
resentation, though  it  is  of  a  somewhat  different 
texture.  On  the  other  side,  vii.  3-17  plainly  goes 
with  c.  8;  while  iv.  I'^-vii.  2  are  akin  to  the  na- 
tional version,  showing  how  grievous  the  situa- 
tion was  and  how  urgent  the  need  of  a  king. 
Chapters  1-3  have  a  twofold  motive;    they  tell 


92  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  the  wonderful  childhood  of  a  great  man,  and 
they  explain  the  disasters  of  Eli's  house.  The 
latter  has  reference  to  cc.  4-6;  the  former,  a 
favorite  theme  of  popular  tales,  is  an  appropriate 
introduction  to  Samuel  the  prophet. 

Of  the  two  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  king- 
dom, it  takes  no  great  critical  discernment  to  see 
that  what  we  have  called  the  national  version  is 
the  older  and  more  historical;  the  other,  which 
condemns  the  monarchy  as  a  kind  of  apostasy, 
takes  the  standpoint  of  Hosea.  The  picture  of 
the  monarch  in  1  Sam.  12  is  drawn  from  sorry 
experience. 

Even  in  the  older  narrative  not  all  is  of  one 
piece.  Chapter  9,  in  which  Saul  is  a  young  man 
in  his  father's  house,  does  not  tally  with  c.  14, 
where  he  has  a  grown-up  son.  The  author  of 
this  narrative  made  it  up  from  traditions  of 
diverse  origin,  some  of  them  more  strictly  his- 
torical, others  embellished  with  legendary  traits. 
In  its  main  features,  however,  it  gives  us  a  trust- 
worthy account  of  the  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom. In  c.  13,  the  breach  with  Samuel,  vs.  7^- 
15*  (with  X.  8  which  prepares  for  it),  are  not  part 
of  the  original  narrative;  c.  15  gives  another 
account  of  the  origin  of  this  breach,  which 
was  evidently  a  standing  feature  of  tradition. 
In  the  remaining  chapters  of  1  Samuel  the 
central  interest  is  the  relations  of  David  to 
Saul.  Here  also  there  are  not  only  two  main 
literary  sources  but  evidence  of  variant  tradi- 
tions underlying  the  oldest  narrative,  and  of  the 
additions  by  later  editors,   sometimes   of   their 


SAMUEL  93 

conception,  sometimes  taken  from  old  and  good 
sources. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  pursue  the  analysis  of 
the  sources  further.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that 
the  further  on  we  go,  the  more  the  older  and  better 
of  the  histories  predominates.  In  2  Samuel  al- 
most the  whole  is  from  this  source  (c.  7  is  a  notable 
exception,  in  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the  seventh 
century).  Abridgment  and  transposition  have 
brought  matters  into  disorder  at  some  points; 
but  2  Sam.  9-20  is  a  well-preserved  piece  of  con- 
tinuous narrative,  of  which  1  Kgs.  1-2  is  the  se- 
quel. 2  Sam.  xxi.  1-14  and  c.  24  are  from  the 
same  source,  but  must  originally  have  stood  at 
an  earlier  point  in  the  history;  their  present 
position  is  best  explained  by  supposing  that  they 
were  once  omitted  —  which  their  contents  make 
very  natural  —  and  subsequently  restored  from 
a  completer  copy,  not  in  their  proper  connection 
but  in  an  appendix.  Chapter  xxiii.  8-39  is  a  very 
ancient  roster  of  David's  "valiant  men,"  the 
companions  of  his  days  as  an  outlawed  free- 
booter on  the  Philistine  border;  xxi.  15-22  is  of 
the  same  character.  Two  poems  attributed  to 
David  are  also  included  in  this  appendix,  c.  22, 
which,  with  many  variants,  is  found  also  in  the 
Psalter  (Ps.  18),  and  xxiii.  1-7. 

The  history  of  Saul  and  David  gave  little  invi- 
tation to  a  moralizing  improvement  such  as  we 
have  found  in  Judges  and  shall  find  again  in  Kings. 
Whatever  faults  those  heroes  had,  a  propensity 
to  the  worship  of  heathen  gods  could  not  be  laid 
to  them.    The  national  uprising  against  the  Phil- 


94  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

istines  was,  in  fact,  a  revival  of  religion.  If  in 
times  of  peace  men  sought  the  blessing  of  the  gods 
of  the  soil  (the  Baals)  upon  their  tillage,  in  war 
their  only  reliance  was  on  Jehovah,  the  god  of 
Israel.  Nor  was  the  worship  of  Jehovah  at  the  vil- 
lage sanctuaries  (high  places)  or  upon  altars  erec- 
ted for  the  nonce,  illegitimate,  even  in  deuteron- 
omic  theory,  till  God  had  taken  up  his  sole  abode 
in  Solomon's  temple.  Accordingly  there  is,  after 
1  Sam.  12,  once  the  close  of  a  history  of  the  judges, 
small  trace  of  the  motives  or  phrases  of  the  sev- 
enth-century school  of  historians;  and  only  in  a 
few  passages  can  the  hand  of  post-exilic  editors  be 
suspected.  For  the  rest  we  have  in  our  hands  a 
product  of  the  oldest  Hebrew  historiography. 

From  a  literary  point  of  view  the  older  source 
in  the  history  of  David  is  unsurpassed.  It  has 
in  perfection  all  the  qualities  that  distinguish  the 
best  Hebrew  prose  such  as  are  conspicuous  in  the 
Judsean  author  of  the  patriarchal  stories  in 
Genesis.  In  the  art  of  narrative  Herodotus  him- 
self could  do  no  better. 

Its  historical  value  is  also  very  high.  The  ac- 
count of  David's  later  years  in  2  Sam.  9-20;  2 
Kgs.  1-2  bears  all  the  marks  of  contemporary 
origin.  It  comes  from  one  who  not  only  knew 
the  large  political  events  of  the  reign,  but  was  inti- 
mately informed  about  the  life  of  the  court,  and 
the  scandals,  crimes,  and  intrigues  in  the  king's 
household  which  clouded  the  end  of  his  glorious 
career.  These  things  are  narrated  with  an  objec- 
tivity and  impartiality  which  cannot  fail  to  im- 
press the  reader.    The  author  has  a  high  admira- 


SAMUEL  95 

tion  for  David,  but  this  does  not  lead  him  to 
gloze  over  his  faults  or  even  his  grave  sins,  nor 
to  disguise  the  weakness  of  his  rule  in  his  own 
house  which  was  the  cause  of  so  muchunhappiness. 
His  development  of  this  domestic  tragedy  is,  in- 
deed, truly  dramatic,  and  the  discrimination  of 
the  characters  —  say  of  Absalom  and  Adonijah  — 
shows  fine  insight.  He  tells  without  comment  how 
only  the  distrust  of  some  of  the  Philistine  chiefs 
kept  David,  as  a  vassal  of  Achish  of  Gath,  from 
fighting  upon  the  Philistine  side  against  Saul 
in  the  fatal  battle  of  Mt.  Gilboa.  So,  too,  he  is 
loyally  minded  to  Solomon,  but  he  does  not  con- 
ceal the  strings  of  the  harem-intrigue  by  which 
the  doting  old  King  David  was  brought  to  de- 
clare for  his  succession,  or  to  pass  over  the  omi- 
nous beginning  of  Solomon's  "new  course," 
with  the  execution  of  Adonijah,  the  deposition 
of  the  priest  Abiathar,  and  the  murder,  at  altar 
where  he  had  sought  asylum,  of  Joab,  to  whom 
more  than  any  other  the  house  of  Jesse  owed  the 
throne.  The  official  pretexts  are  duly  recorded, 
but  the  facts  speak  for  themselves.  In  1  Kgs.  ii. 
5  f .  the  death  of  Joab  is  enjoined  in  David's  tes- 
tament; opinions  differ  whether  these  verses  are 
from  the  same  source  with  ii.  12  ff.,  or  are  by  the 
late  seventh-century  writer  to  whom  vs.  1-4  are 
ascribed  by  all.  Without  idealizing  David,  we 
may  at  least  allow  ourselves  the  conjecture  that, 
if  his  last  words  decided  the  death  of  his  old  com- 
panion in  arms  and  most  loyal  servant,  Nathan 
or  Bathsheba  was  at  his  dying  ear. 
The  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Israelite  tribes 


96  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

which  the  Philistine  invasion  created;  the  long 
struggle  with  these  foes,  very  different  from  their 
conflicts  with  their  petty  neighbors;  the  emer- 
gence in  this  struggle  of  a  national  consciousness 
at  once  political  and  religious;  the  union  of  the 
tribes  in  a  national  kingdom;  the  conquest  of 
independence;  the  following  wars  of  expansion 
and  the  foundation  of  a  short-lived  Israelite 
empire  —  these  were  achievements  to  stir  the 
soul  of  a  people  and  be  celebrated  in  song  and 
story.  The  leaders,  too,  in  these  memorable 
doings  were  such  heroes  as  ancient  history  loves 
to  have  in  the  middle  of  its  stage  —  Saul  with  his 
chivalric  son  Jonathan;  David  with  Joab,  Abner, 
and  the  rest  of  his  gallant  band. 

The  making  of  great  history  has  often  given  a 
first  impulse  to  the  writing  of  history,  and  we 
may  well  believe  that  it  was  so  in  Israel,  and  that 
the  beginning  of  Hebrew  historical  literature,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  was  made  with 
Saul  and  David.  Around  such  figures  the  popu- 
lar imagination  always  weaves  a  more  or  less 
translucent  tissue  of  legend,  and  particularly 
about  their  youth  before  they  come  out  on  the 
stage  of  history,  or  the  manner  of  their  first  ap- 
pearance. It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  such 
I  embellishment  of  the  person  or  the  deeds  of  a  hero 
[  arises  only  at  a  distance  and  takes  generations  to 
1  grow.  It  might  more  truly  be  said  that  if  a  man 
has  not  sufficiently  impressed  the  imagination  of 
his  contemporaries  to  set  them  to  spontaneous 
romancing  about  him,  it  is  little  likely  that  after 
times  will  take  more  interest  in  him.    The  pres- 


SAMUEL  97 

ence  of  legendary  traits  in  the  stories  of  Saul  and 
David  does  not  prove  that  these  stories  are  remote 
from  their  times. 

When  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  histori- 
cal literature  with  the  recent  past,  it  is  soon  seen 
that  the  roots  of  the  present  lie  farther  back,  a 
vague  apprehension  of  the  truth  that  history  is 
continuous.  In  Israel  the  new  sense  of  unity  also 
gave  a  common  interest  to  traditions  and  legends 
that  had  hitherto  been  local  or  tribal  affairs.  The 
solidarity  of  the  nation  projected  itself  into  the 
past;  it  was  conceived  that  Israel,  before  it  was 
broken  up  by  the  settlement  in  Canaan,  had  been 
one  great  people  divided  into  so  and  so  many 
tribes. 

The  historians  gathered  up  tribal  tales  such  as 
the  exploits  of  the  judges  (that  is,  in  the  original 
sense,  deliverers,  or  defenders),  the  sacred  legends 
of  holy  places,  the  traditions  of  a  wonderful  escape 
from  the  Egyptians,  a  visit  to  the  Mount  of  God 
and  an  agreement  to  worship  the  god  of  the  place 
as  their  god,  of  another  sanctuary  in  the  desert 
at  Kadesh,  conflicts  with  the  Bedouins,  and  at- 
tempts to  force  an  entry  into  Canaan  —  in  short, 
all  the  diverse  material  which  is  preserved  in  the 
older  narratives  in  Exodus  and  Numbers — and 
combined  them  as  best  they  could  into  a  continu- 
ous history  of  the  people  of  Israel. 

The  continuity  is,  however,  only  a  narrative 
continuity;  historically  there  are  great  gaps  in 
it,  or,  more  exactly,  the  traditions  cluster  about 
only  a  few  points,  such  as  the  exodus  and  the  in- 
vasion of  Palestine,  and  these  are  embellished 


1^i 


98  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

with  a  wealth  of  legendary  and  mythical  circum- 
stance beneath  which  the  facts  are  effectually 
hidden.  The  nature  of  this  material  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  between  Joshua  and 
Eli  there  are  only  the  episodes  of  the  judges, 
strung  on  a  chronological  string,  generalized  as 
experiences  of  all  Israel,  and  put  under  a  theo- 
logical judgment  —  invaluable  as  pictures  of 
civilization,  but  as  a  history  of  a  couple  of  cen- 
turies (the  chronology  says  four)  evidently  in- 
suflBcient.  On  the  other  side  of  the  exodus  are, 
according  to  the  genealogies,  three  or  four  gener- 
ations (the  chronology  again  makes  it  four  hun- 
dred years)  of  total  ignorance;  beyond  that  lies 
the  patriarchal  story,  the  realm  of  pure  legend. 

Out  of  such  materials  Judsean  authors  in  the 
tenth  and  following  centuries  constructed  the 
history  of  their  people  from  the  remotest  antiq- 
uity, and,  as  commonly  happens  with  the  first 
precipitation  of  national  traditions,  preformed 
all  subsequent  representations. 

This  earliest  book  of  history  is  commonly  desig- 
nated in  the  Pentateuch  and  Joshua  by  the  symbol 
J.  It  is  disputed  whether  the  oldest  history  of 
the  founding  of  the  kingdom  in  Samuel  should  be 
regarded  as  a  continuation  of  J.  If  it  were  meant 
thereby  to  affirm  unity  of  authorship  of  this  strand 
from  Genesis  to  Samuel,  that  would  be  saying 
much  more  that  the  facts  warrant;  but  there  is 
through  the  whole  so  noteworthy  a  congruity  of 
conception  and  sameness  of  excellence  in  style  that 
it  is  not  inappropriate  to  use  for  it  the  one  sym- 
bol J  in  the  sense  of  the  oldest  Judaean  history. 


X 


CHAPTER   XI 

KINGS 

David  took  Jerusalem,  which  till  then  had  been 
a  Jebusite  stronghold,  and  made  it  the  capital  of 
his  kingdom;  but  he  reigned,  after  as  before,  in 
patriarchal  fashion,  making,  so  far  as  appears, 
few  changes  in  the  old  institutions.  Solomon 
reorganized  the  monarchy  after  the  common  pat- 
tern of  Oriental  despotisms,  dividing  the  country 
into  provinces  for  purposes  of  taxation,  without 
regard  to  the  autonomy  of  the  tribes  and  their  lib- 
erties. He  built  a  great  palace  in  the  citadel,  and, 
within  the  same  enclosure,  a  temple,  which,  as 
the  royal  sanctuary,  was  also  in  a  sense  national. 
Like  other  Eastern  rulers,  he  caused  his  doings 
to  be  recorded  in  the  annals  of  the  kingdom,  and 
doubtless  the  priests  of  the  temple  kept  their 
own  chronicles.  From  this  time,  therefore,  sources 
of  a  new  kind  make  their  appearance  in  the  his- 
tory, contemporary  records  drawn  from  the 
royal  and  priestly  annals.  The  extracts  from 
these  sources  in  the  Books  of  Kings,  like  those 
of  the  Assyrian  kings,  or  the  Phoenician  annals 
of  which  fragments  (through  Menander)  are  pre- 
served by  Josephus,  were  brief  and  bald  records 
of  doings  or  happenings,  not  biographical  or  his- 
torical narratives.     But  brief  and  bald  as  they 


100  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

were,  they  furnished  a  groundwork  of  fact;  and, 
since  they  set  down  at  the  accession  of  each  king 
the  length  of  his  predecessor's  reign,  they  gave 
also  the  data  for  a  continuous  chronology. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  historical  lit- 
erature whose  brilliant  beginnings  we  have  seen 
ceased  in  the  first  century  of  the  kingdom  or 
that  the  writers  occupied  themselves  solely  with 
the  remoter  past.  The  memorable  deeds  of  great 
men  will  not  have  gone  uncelebrated.  The  nar- 
rative, however,  which  is  the  chief  source  for  the 
times  of  Saul  and  David,  breaks  off  abruptly  in 

1  Kgs.  2.  The  Books  of  Kings  are  of  a  wholly 
different  fabric.  For  one  thing,  while  the  two 
Books  of  Samuel  cover  little  more  than  the  span 
of  one  long  lifetime.  Kings,  in  about  the  same 
space,  comprises  the  history  of  close  on  to  four 
centuries.  But  there  is  a  still  greater  difference, 
as  we  shall  see,  in  the  way  in  which  history  is 
treated. 

The  grand  divisions  of  the  Books  of  Kings  are 
these:  1  Kgs.  ii.  12-xi.  43  is  occupied  with  the 
reign  of  Solomon;  the  division  of  the  kingdom 
after  his  death  is  narrated  in  xii.  1-24;  the  par- 
allel history  of  the  two  kingdoms  of  Israel  and 
Judah  to  the  fall  of  Samaria  in  721  b.  c.  runs  to 

2  Kgs.  xviii.  12;  the  history  of  Judah  from  that 
date  to  its  own  fall  in  586  fills  the  rest  of  the 
book. 

The  age  of  the  book  is  easily  determined:  it 
tells  of  the  two  sieges  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Baby- 
lonians (597  and  586  b.  c);  the  destruction  of 
the  temple  and  palace  and  the  razing  of  the  city 


KINGS  101 

walls,  the  assassination  of  Gedaliah,  whom 
Nebuchadnezzar  had  made  governor  over  the 
devastated  land;  and  the  flight  of  the  Jews  from 
the  king's  vengeance  to  Egypt.  The  last  event 
mentioned  is  the  liberation  of  King  Jehoiachin 
by  Evil-Merodach  (Amil-Marduk)  in  561  b.  c.  It 
is  of  course  possible  that  this  detached  notice 
(2  Kgs.  XXV.  27-30)  was  added  by  a  later  hand; 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  include  the  story  of 
Gedaliah  in  this  suspicion.  The  book  in  its 
present  form  cannot,  therefore,  be  earlier  than, 
say,  about  580  b.  c.  In  some  places  in  the  body 
of  the  book,  also,  the  fall  of  Judah  is  spoken  of 
as  an  accomplished  fact,  e.  g.  2  Kgs.  xvii.  19  f. 
(in  conflict  with  vss.  18  and  21  ff.).  Such  pas- 
sages are,  however,  not  very  numerous,  and  they 
commonly  sit  loose  in  their  context,  like  the 
verses  just  cited,  as  if  they  were  thrust  into  the 
narrative  by  an  editor.  The  bulk  of  the  work, 
on  the  contrary,  seems  to  suppose  the  existence 
of  the  kingdom.  It  is,  therefore,  the  general 
opinion  that  the  book  was  written  before  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  a  continuator  added 
the  account  of  the  catastrophe  and  the  events 
immediately  subsequent  to  it. 

The  older  Kings,  from  beginning  to  end,  is 
dominated  by  the  conception  and  permeated  by 
the  phraseology  of  Deuteronomy  and  of  the 
prophet  Jeremiah,  and  must  therefore  be  placed 
between  621  b.  c.  (the  date  of  the  introduction 
of  the  deuteronomic  law)  and  the  beginning 
of  the  last  act  of  the  history,  that  is  to  say, 
probably  shortly  before  the  year  600  B.  c. 


102  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  Kings  was  written 
under  the  influence  of  Deuteronomy;  it  was 
written,  we  might  rather  say,  as  a  commentary  on 
the  deuteronomic  doctrine  that  f alHng  away  from 
the  national  rehgion  is  punished  by  national 
disaster.  In  this  point  of  view  it  resembles 
Judges;  but  while  in  Judges  it  is  the  lapse  into 
Canaanite  heathenism,  the  worship  of  the  Baals 
and  Astartes,  which  draws  upon  Israel  invasion 
and  subjugation,  in  Kings  not  only  foreign 
religions  but  the  worship  at  the  high  places,  that 
is,  the  worship  of  Jehovah  at  his  oldest  and 
holiest  sanctuaries,  provokes  the  wrath  of  God; 
for  since  the  dedication  of  Solomon's  temple 
Jehovah  had  made  it  his  exclusive  abode  and 
all  other  places  of  worship  were  illegitimate. 
We  have  seen  that  down  to  Josiah's  reform  this 
worship  prevailed  unchallenged  in  both  king- 
doms. In  the  author's  view,  generation  after 
generation,  under  bad  kings  and  good,  had  thus 
sinned  against  the  organic  law  of  religion,  and  all 
judgments  had  failed  to  work  amendment.  In 
Israel  idolatry  made  the  case  worse;  the  "golden 
calves,"  that  is,  the  small  images  of  Jehovah  in 
the  form  of  a  bull,  which  Jeroboam  had  set  up 
at  Bethel  and  Dan  were  worshiped  under  all  his 
successors.  These  sins  had  in  the  end  brought 
ruin  on  Israel,  and  they  were  bringing  it  on 
Judah.  Manasseh  had  done  even  worse  than 
Jeroboam;  strange  gods  from  near  and  far 
were  installed  in  the  temple  itself,  and  under  its 
walls  men  sacrificed  their  children  to  *'the  King'* 
(Moloch) .    Josiah's  reforms  had  no  lasting  results ; 


KINGS  103 

the  reaction  under  his  successors  restored  the 
high  places,  and  heathen  cults  flourished  again. 
The  doom  was  imminent;  would  Judah  learn 
the  lesson  of  history  before  it  was  too  late? 
Some  one  has  said  that  history  is  philosophy 
teaching  by  example;  for  the  author  of  Kings 
history  was  prophecy  teaching  by  example. 

It  was  the  lesson  of  the  history  that  the  author 
was  after,  and  this  ruling  motive  determined  his 
selection  of  material  as  well  as  the  treatment  of 
it.  It  explains  why  he  hardly  tells  anything 
about  some  of  the  greatest  kings  and  the  most 
glorious  periods  of  the  history,  which  did  not 
afford  illustrations  of  his  thesis,  while  he  dwells 
on  things  of  much  less  historical  importance. 

The  characteristic  interests  of  the  author  and 
his  highly  characteristic  style  sharply  distinguish 
his  own  writing  from  the  sources  which  he  incor- 
porates. These  sources,  as  will  be  supposed, 
were  of  different  kinds  and  of  various  worth; 
they  were  naturally  not  the  same  in  all  parts  of 
the  long  period  he  covers,  and  he  has  not  always 
dealt  with  them  in  the  same  way.  Part  of  his 
material  comes,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the 
annals  of  the  kings,  to  which  the  reader  is  regu- 
larly referred  for  further  information  (see,  e.  g., 
1  Kgs.  xiv.  19,  29),  or  from  temple  records;  part 
of  it  from  more  properly  literary  sources.  Some- 
times it  has  all  the  marks  of  trustworthy  tradi- 
tion originating  close  to  the  event;  again,  it  is 
embroidered  with  legendary  traits;  a  smaller 
part  is  edifying  fiction.  In  some  cases,  as  in  the 
stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  a  special  source  is 


104  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

recognizable,  but  in  the  main  the  attempt  to 
trace  the  literary  channels  through  which  the 
matter  reached  the  author  is  fruitless. 

In  the  history  of  Solomon's  reign  the  central 
place  is  taken  by  a  description  of  the  palace  and 
temple  he  erected  (1  Kgs.  6-7),  for  which  c.  5 
is  a  preparation,  and  c.  8,  the  dedication  of  the 
temple,  the  sequel.  The  interesting  account  of 
the  provincial  organization  and  system  of  taxa- 
tion in  c.  4  is  evidently  from  an  authoritative 
source;  the  cession  of  cities  in  Galilee  to  Hiram, 
the  list  of  cities  fortified,  the  (mutilated)  account 
of  the  revolt  of  Edom,  the  rise  of  the  king- 
dom of  Damascus,  and  the  (mutilated)  his- 
tory of  the  revolt  of  Jeroboam,  the  prelude  to 
the  separation  of  Israel  and  Judah,  are  also  of 
good  authority. 

By  the  side  of  these  are  stories  celebrating  the 
magnificence  and  wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  begin- 
nings of  the  exuberant  Solomonic  legend.  The 
judgment  of  Solomon  in  the  case  of  the  two  har- 
lots and  of  the  visit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  are 
examples  of  the  popular  tale,  and  relatively  old. 
The  dedication  of  the  temple  has  been  much  expan- 
ded by  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Kings;  1  Kgs. 
viii.  14-66  are  wholly  his  composition;  ix.  1-9  is 
an  appendix  to  c.  8.  In  viii.  1-12  an  older  ac- 
count of  the  dedication  has  been  improved  by 
various  hands.  Comparison  with  the  Greek 
translation  shows  that  this  process  went  on  to 
very  late  times;  the  latest  additions  are  akin 
to  the  priestly  stratum  in  the  Pentateuch. 
Chapter  xi.  1-13  also  is  by  the  author  of  the  Book 


KINGS  105 

of  Kings,  built  about  a  few  words  from  his  source 
in  vs.  7;  vss.  29-40  are  of  the  same  sort. 

1  Kgs.  12-2  Kgs.  17  contains  the  parallel 
history  of  Israel  and  Judah.  The  method  of 
the  author  is  to  follow  the  reign  of  a  king,  say 
of  Israel,  to  its  end  and  then  go  back  to  take  up 
the  king  of  Judah  who  came  to  the  throne 
during  this  reign,  follow  him  to  his  death,  and 
return  to  pick  up  the  Israelite  history  again  in 
the  same  way.  The  result  is,  thus,  interlocking 
histories,  rather  than  a  parallel  history.  The 
length  of  each  reign  is  given,  probably  ultimately 
from  the  annals,  with  a  computed  synchronism 
which  is  at  some  points  demonstrably  in  error. 
With  the  introduction  of  each  king  a  compre- 
hensive judgment  by  the  standard  of  the  deu- 
teronomic  law  is  pronounced  upon  his  reign. 
Thus,  "In  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  king  Jero- 
boam the  son  of  Nebat  [king  of  Israel],  began 
Abijah  to  reign  over  Judah.  Three  years  reigned 
he  in  Jerusalem,  and  his  mother's  name  was 
Maacah  the  daughter  of  Abishalom.  And  he 
walked  in  all  the  sins  of  his  father  which  he  had 
done  before  him,"  etc.  *'In  the  third  year  of 
Asa  king  of  Judah  began  Baasha  the  son  of  Abijah 
to  reign  over  all  Israel  in  Tirzah,  and  he  reigned 
twenty  and  four  years.  And  he  did  that  which 
was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  walked  in 
the  way  of  Jeroboam,  and  in  his  sin  wherewith 
he  made  Israel  to  sin."  These  judgments  are 
so  stereotyped  that  they  are  pronounced  even  on 
kings  who  reigned  but  a  short  time  —  Zimri,  for 
instance,  who  lasted  only  seven  days.     In  the 


106  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

case  of  godly  kings  of  Judah,  even  of  such  as 
are  credited  with  commendable  zeal  against  the 
worships  that  Deuteronomy  denounces  as  Ca- 
naanitish  heathenism,  the  reproach  of  leaving  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  at  the  "high  places"  un- 
molested is  not  spared  them;  see,  e.  g.,  1  Kgs. 
XV.  1-14;  xxii.  43. 

The  conflict  between  the  tribes  to  whom  the 
name  Israel  by  historical  right  belonged,  headed 
by  Ephraim,  intent  on  reclaiming  the  ancient 
liberties  which  Solomon  had  curtailed  and  secur- 
ing adequate  guarantees  for  them,  and  Rehoboam, 
obstinate  to  maintain  the  despotism  which  his 
father  had  established  and  the  supremacy  of 
Judah,  ended  in  the  Israelite  tribes  refusing  to 
acknowledge  the  succession  and  setting  up  a 
kingdom  of  their  own  with  Jeroboam  son  of 
Nebat  as  king.  These  critical  events  are  nar- 
rated in  the  source,  1  Kgs.  xii.  1-20,  with  note- 
worthy impartiality;  a  comparison  with  the 
treatment  of  the  matter  by  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Kings  himself  in  xi.  29-39;  xii.  21-24, 
is  instructive.  The  account  of  Jeroboam's 
religious  foundations  and  innovations  in  c.  xii. 
26-33  (with  which  xiii.  33^  belongs)  is  probably 
based  on  an  old  Israelite  source  (the  temples 
Jeroboam  built,  etc.),  on  which  the  author  of 
the  book  has  put  his  own  construction  and  made 
his  own  comments.  1  Kgs.  13  is  a  specimen  of 
the  edifying  stories  —  religious  fiction  —  which 
were  added  to  the  historical  books  at  a  very  late 
time  and  are  especially  numerous  in  Chronicles; 

^    the  reference  to  it  in  2  Kgs.  xxiii.  17  f .  is  an  inter- 

> 


KINGS  107 

polation  in  a  context  itself  post-exilic.  The  story 
of  the  visit  of  Jeroboam's  wife  to  the  prophet 
Ahijah  (1  Kgs.  xiv.  1-18)  is  in  the  manner  of  the 
author,  but  seems  to  have  an  older  basis.  The 
fluid  state  of  the  text  at  a  very  late  time  is  again 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  some  recensions  of  the 
Greek  version  the  story  is  not  found  in  this  place, 
but,  together  with  other  matter  about  Jeroboam 
(in  part  variant  parallel  to  1  Kgs.  xi.  26  ff., 
40),  in  a  long  passage  which  stands  in  c.  12 
between  vss.  24  and  25. 

The  invasion  of  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt 
(1  Kgs.  xiv.  25-28),  is  introduced  by  the  author 
with  a  catalogue  of  the  deuteronomic  transgres- 
sions which  provoked  God  to  punish  the  king- 
dom in  this  way;  the  similarity  to  the  intro- 
duction to  the  oppressions  in  Judges  is  apparent. 
So  in  the  following  chapters:  the  author's  facts 
probably  come  from  annalistic  sources  which  can 
in  places  be  recognized,  but  the  religious  inter- 
pretation of  the  events,  which  he  sometimes 
gives  in  his  own  quality  as  historian,  sometimes 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  a  prophet  (e.  g.  xvi. 
1-7,  cf.  xiv.  1-18),  is  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  deuteronomist  school. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  author's  method 
is  illustrated  by  his  treatment  of  the  reign  of 
Omri  (1  Kgs.  xvi.  23-28).  Omri  was  the  founder 
of  the  greatest  dynasty  of  the  northern  kingdom, 
and  was  one  of  its  greatest  kings.  From  an 
inscription  of  the  Moabite  king  Mesha,  we 
learn  that  Omri  subjugated  the  lands  east  of  the 
Jordan  (see  also  2  Kgs.  i.  1;   iii.  4  ff.),  and  it  is 


108  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

probable  that  liis  conquests  were  pushed  to  the 
northeast  into  Syria;  the  Assyrian  kings  long 
after  his  death  call  Israel  the  "house  of  Omri.'* 
But  the  long  and  brilliantly  successful  reign  of  a 
king  who  in  religion  followed  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  kings  of  Israel  before  him,  "golden  calves" 
and  all,  obviously  could  not  be  made  to  exemplify 
the  doctrine  that  such  sins  are  regularly  visited 
by  condign  judgment  in  national  disaster.  Con- 
sequently, all  that  our  author  records  of  Omri, 
beyond  the  revolutions  which  paved  for  him  the 
way  to  the  throne  (1  Kgs.  xvi.  16-18),  is  con- 
tained in  one  verse,  1  Kgs.  xvi.  24  —  he  built  a 
capital  on  a  new  site,  Samaria! 

In  the  following  reign,  however,  Israel  had 
troubles  enough;  the  conquests  east  of  the  Jor- 
dan were  lost,  and  the  long  chapter  of  Syrian 
wars  began.  This  was  material  more  to  the  au- 
thor's purpose,  and  he  makes  good  use  of  it.  Here 
also,  in  addition  to  the  annals  and  whatever 
other  sources  were  at  his  hand  for  the  preceding 
period,  he  had  a  new  and  peculiarly  grateful 
source  in  the  stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha.  To 
the  fact  that  these  prophets  were  outstanding 
figures  in  some  of  the  crises  of  the  Syrian  wars  we 
owe  it  that  so  much  of  the  history  of  that  struggle 
is  preserved;  for  what  the  author  has  extracted 
from  the  annals  is  as  meager  as  elsewhere. 

From  such  "lives  and  times"  of  the  prophets 
is  derived  much  the  greater  part  of  1  Kgs.  17-2 
Kgs.  10,  with  2  Kgs.  xiii.  14-21.  Whether  the 
author  of  Kings  found  these  all  in  one  collection, 
or  whether  the  Uves  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  came 


KINGS  109 

into  his  hands  separately,  is  not  a  question  of 
any  great  consequence.  It  is  clear  that  the 
stories  themselves  are  not  all  of  the  same  origin 
or  age,  though  they  are  probably  not  very  wide 
apart,  and  the  presence  of  a  legendary  element, 
as  has  been  remarked  above,  is  not  of  itself 
proof  of  remoteness  in  time. 

The  stories  of  Elijah  (1  Kgs.  17-19;  21;  2 
Kgs.  1;  ii.  1-18)  are  among  the  most  striking 
in  the  Old  Testament;  the  supernatural  in  them 
seems  the  natural  setting  for  a  figure  of  such 
heroic  mold,  and  is  a  stronger  testimony  than 
any  record  of  fact  could  be  to  the  impression  of 
the  superman  on  the  imagination  of  ordinary 
mortals.  Through  the  vesture  of  legend,  we  too 
have  the  impression  of  a  something  titanic  in 
the  man  who  dared  solitary  to  stand  for  his  God 
against  king,  priests,  prophets,  and  people,  and, 
worse  than  all,  the  vengeful  fury  of  a  woman! 
We  can  see,  also,  that  his  conflict  against  the 
prophets  of  Baal  makes  an  era  in  the  history  of 
religion  in  Israel.  **If  Jehovah  be  God,  follow 
him;  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him,"  he  thunders 
at  the  people  on  Mt.  Carmel.  It  was  not  the  first 
assertion  of  the  jealousy  of  Jehovah  and  the 
exclusiveness  of  the  true  religion;  but  the  issue 
had  never  before  been  so  dramatically  joined. 
The  intolerant  monotheism  of  Judaism  had 
found  its  war  cry. 

1  Kgs.  17-19,  Elijah  at  Sarepta,  on  Carmel, 
and  at  Horeb,  belong  together;  the  beginning, 
which  must  in  some  way  have  brought  Elijah 
upon  the  stage,  is  not  preserved;    1   Kgs.   21 


110  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

(Naboth's  vineyard)  may  very  well  be  from  the 
same  source;  in  the  end  of  the  chapter  (vs.  ^O'^- 
26)  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Kings  has  the 
word,  and  in  the  other  chapters  there  are  slight 
traces  of  the  same  hand.  With  these  small 
exceptions  the  stories  are  old,  and  probably 
received  their  present  literary  form  in  the  ninth 
century,  certainly  before  the  prophetic  move- 
ment of  the  eighth.  2  Kgs.  i.  2-17  is  a  legend  of 
a  different  kind  and  presumably  considerably 
younger.  2  Kgs.  ii.  1-18,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
akin  to  the  older  stories  in  1  Kgs.  17-19,  21; 
it  forms  the  connecting  link  with  Elisha. 

Among  the  stories  of  Elijah  stand  other  epi- 
sodes of  the  Syrian  wars  in  which  prophets  figure, 
1  Kgs.  20;  xxii.  1-38.  The  second  of  these, 
Micaiah  ben  Imlah  before  Ahab  and  Jehoshaphat, 
is  of  peculiar  interest.  They  are  apparently  of 
the  same  age  with  their  surrounding.  In  both 
a  few  verses  are  from  later  editors.  To  the  same 
cycle  probably  belong  2  Kgs.  iii.  4-27,  the 
campaign  against  Moab,  as  well  as  2  Kgs.  ix. 
1-x.  27,  Jehu's  revolt  instigated  by  Elisha,  the 
murder  of  King  Ahaziah  and  of  the  queen 
mother,  Jezebel,  the  massacre  of  the  princes  of 
the  house  of  Omri  and  the  extirpation  of  the 
worship  of  Baal. 

Beside  these  are  a  group  of  stories  about 
Elisha,  chiefly  celebrating  him  as  a  wonder- 
worker, and  bringing  him  into  connection  with 
the  "sons  of  the  prophets,"  who  seem  to  have 
formed  a  kind  of  dervish  order.  The  collector 
or  editor  has  accumulated  them  all  in  one  reign. 


KINGS  111 

probably  against  their  original  intention.  Scat- 
tered through  the  narratives  drawn  from  the 
lives  of  the  prophets  are  brief  notices  from  the 
annals  and  the  usual  deuteronomist  appraisals 
by  the  author  of  Kings. 

The  attempt  of  Jehu  to  exterminate  the  dy- 
nasty of  Omri,  involving  the  slaughter  of  the 
Judsean  princes,  had  the  unintended  result  of 
enabling  the  queen  mother,  Athaliah,  a  daughter 
of  Ahab  and  Jezebel,  to  seize  the  throne.  The 
revolution,  planned  by  the  chief  priest  of  Jeru- 
salem, which  overthrew  the  usurper  and  brought 
the  true  heir,  the  seven-year-old  Joash,  to  his 
own,  is  told  in  %  Kgs.  xi.  1-20;  a  somewhat  minute 
account  of  the  restoration  of  the  temple  in  his 
reign  follows  in  c.  xii.  4-16,  both  from  a  good 
Judsean  source,  perhaps  ultimately  a  temple 
chronicle.  The  author  of  Kings  has  his  usual  for- 
mulas, including  the  tolerated  high  places,  in  c. 
xii.  1-3.  The  extract  from  the  annals  at  the  end 
of  the  chapter,  the  straits  into  which  Hazael  of 
Syria  brought  Joash,  and  his  death  by  a  treason- 
able conspiracy,  which  might  be  thought  to  prove 
that  piety  is  not  always  crowned  with  prosperity, 
is  anticipated  by  the  author  of  Kings  in  2  Kgs.  xii. 
3  —  Joash's  piety  lasted  only  as  long  as  he  was  in 
the  leading  strings  of  the  priest  Jehoiada. 

In  the  following  reigns  the  material  derived  from 
narrative  sources  is  more  scanty;  a  noteworthy 
passage  of  this  kind  is  the  account,  evidently 
from  an  Israelite  writer,  of  the  chastisement 
Jehoash  of  Israel  inflicted  on  the  presumptu- 
ous   Amaziah    of   Judah    (2    Kgs.    xiv.    8-14). 


112  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

The  contemporary  reigns  of  Jeroboam  II  of 
Israel  and  Azariah,  or  Uzziah,  of  Judah,  lasting 
half  a  century,  a  period  of  great  prosperity  in 
both  kingdoms,  are  dispatched  with  extreme 
brevity,  and  are  followed  by  the  swiftly  successive 
conspiracies  and  revolutions  in  which  the  north- 
ern kingdom  declined  to  its  fall.  The  story  of 
treason  and  bloodshed  is  suspended  to  tell  of  the 
reign  of  Ahaz  in  Judah  (2  Kgs.  16)  from  a 
source  chiefly  interested  in  the  temple,  and  then 
the  last  act  of  Israel's  tragedy  opens.  To  the 
brief  account  of  the  fall  of  Samaria  in  2  Kgs.  xvii. 
1-6,  is  appended  the  moral  of  the  whole  history, 
vss.  7-41.  This  homiletic  improvement  of  the 
catastrophe  was  an  inviting  task,  and  besides  the 
author  of  Kings,  the  exilian  continuator  and  per- 
haps still  later  editors  contributed  to  draw  it  out 
and  emphasize  it. 

From  this  point  the  historian  has  only  Judah 
to  deal  with.  The  reign  of  Hezekiah  is  narrated 
at  some  length  in  2  Kgs.  18-20.  A  considerable 
part  of  these  chapters  (xviii.  13-xx.  19)  is  found 
also  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah  (Isa.  36-39),  with  vari- 
ations which  are  of  much  interest  for  the  history 
of  the  text.  The  psalm,  Isa.  xxxviii.  9-20,  for 
instance,  is  not  found  in  Kings;  2  Kgs.  xviii.  14- 
16  is  not  in  Isaiah,  and  minor  differences  occur  in 
almost  every  verse.  The  introduction  to  the 
reign  of  Hezekiah  by  the  author  of  Kings  is  some- 
what longer  than  usual,  and  attributes  to  him 
not  only  the  destruction  of  the  serpent  idol  in 
the  temple  which  Moses  was  believed  to  have 
made  (cf.  Num.  xxi.  8  f.),  and  of  other  apparatus 


KINGS  113 

of  heathenism,  but  the  removal  of  the  high  places, 
making  him  thus  anticipate  the  reforms  of  Josiah 
a  century  later  (2  Kgs.  xviii.  4).  This  probably 
exaggerates  Hezekiah's  good  works,  but  for  the 
bronze  serpent  to  which  sacrificial  worship  had 
been  paid  from  time  immemorial,  as  well  as  for 
vs.  7  f.  (Hezekiah's  rebellion),  which  is  the  antece- 
dent of  vs.  13  ff.,  he  may  have  had  the  authority 
of  the  annals. 

From  the  annals  probably  come  also  2  Kgs. 
xviii.  13-16,  with  their  brief  record  of  the  pen- 
alty Hezekiah  paid  for  his  revolt.  Of  this  we  have 
also  Sennacherib's  account  in  his  inscriptions, 
where  he  tells  how  he  took  the  cities  of  Judah 
and  shut  up  Hezekiah  in  Jerusalem  "like  a  bird 
in  a  cage,"  and  gives  the  figures  of  the  heavy  in- 
demnity he  imposed  upon  him.  -  There  follow 
two  longer  accounts  of  Sennacherib's  operations, 
2  Kgs.  xviii.  17-xix.  8  and  xix.  9-37,  which  are 
commonly  regarded  as  parallel  and  somewhat 
discrepant  relations  of  the  same  campaign,  but 
by  some  are  thought  to  refer  to  two  different 
occasions,  at  an  interval  of  ten  years  or  more. 
2  Kgs.  XX.  1-11  (cf.  Isa.  38)  is  perhaps  from  a  life 
of  Isaiah,  who  is  the  chief  figure  in  it;  vs.  12-19 
(Isa.  39),  the  embassy  of  the  chronic  Babylonian 
rebel,  Merodach  Baladan,  presumably  to  under- 
mine Hezekiah's  shaky  loyalty  to  his  Assyrian 
lord,  seems  to  belong  at  an  earlier  point  in  the 
story;  in  it  also  Isaiah  is  the  central  person.  In 
the  closing  paragraph  the  author  of  Kings  has 
preserved  an  interesting  annalistic  notice  of  an 
aqueduct    and    reservoir   which   Hezekiah    con- 


114  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

structed,  not  improbably  the  Siloam  tunnel  and 
the  reservoir  it  feeds. 

Of  the  fifty -five  years'  reign  of  Manasseh,  and 
the  two  years  of  his  son  Amon,  a  half-century  of 
peace  and  prosperity  in  which  the  country  re- 
cuperated from  the  disasters  Hezekiah  had 
brought  upon  it,  nothing  is  told.  Instead  we 
have  a  long  catalogue  of  Manasseh's  religious 
obliquities,  which  includes  all  the  crimes  most 
abhorrent  to  the  seventh-century  prophets  and 
laws,  and  the  proclamation  of  God  *'by  his  ser- 
vants the  prophets"  that  these  sins  sealed  the 
doom  of  Judah.  This  prediction  is  made  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  accomplished  fact,  and  in- 
deed most  of  the  chapter  seems  to  be  by  the  exilian 
continuator  of  Kings  or  a  still  later  writer. 

With  the  reforms  of  Josiah  (621  b.  c;  2  Kgs. 
22-23)  we  arrive  at  events  which,  if  not  within 
the  personal  knowledge  of  the  author  of  Kings, 
were  known  to  his  older  contemporaries.  This 
does  not,  of  course,  exclude  the  use  of  written 
records  or  narratives,  and,  in  fact,  there  seem  to 
be  traces  of  such  in  the  chapters.  More  certain  it 
is  that  the  continuator  of  the  book  made  some 
changes  in  the  account;  the  oracle  of  Huldah,  for 
example,  seems  to  have  been  revised  in  the  light 
of  the  event. 

To  this  continuator,  as  has  already  been  said, 
the  history  of  the  two  sieges  of  Jerusalem,  the 
deportations,  and  the  misfortunes  of  those  who 
were  left  in  the  land  are  to  be  attributed.  In 
several  places  in  earlier  parts  of  the  history  we 
have  had  occasion  to  observe  that  additions  and 


KINGS  115 

changes  continued  to  be  made  by  the  editors  or 
scribes  —  and  every  scribe  who  copied  a  book  in 
those  days  wielded  an  editor's  pen  when  he  chose 
—  until  a  time  close  to  the  age  of  the  Greek  trans- 
lation, that  is,  the  third  century  B.  c. 

The  age  in  which  the  Pentateuch  and  the  several 
Historical  Books  (Joshua-Kings),  the  product  of 
the  long  and  obscure  process  which  we  have  at- 
tempted to  outline  in  the  preceding  chapters,  were 
adjusted  and  connected  so  as  to  make  a  contin- 
uous history  from  the  creation  to  the  fall  of  the 
Judsean  state,  can  be  fixed  only  by  the  fact  that 
the  author  of  Chronicles  (about  300  b.  c.  or 
somewhat  later;  see  below)  seems  to  have  read 
these  books  in  the  order  and,  so  far  as  his  use  of 
them  permits  a  judgment,  substantially  with  the 
contents  of  our  present  Old  Testament.  This 
arrangement,  or  edition,  if  we  choose  to  call  it  so, 
as  has  been  shown,  did  not  put  an  end  to  additions 
and  alterations,  though  they  gradually  became 
less  frequent  and  less  important  in  the  following 
centuries.  A  standard  and  stable  Hebrew  text 
was  established  only  in  the  second  century  after 
the  Christian  era. 


CHAPTER  XII 

CHRONICLES 

By  the  side  of  this  comprehensive  history 
stands  another  which  is  in  part  parallel,  in  part 
supplementary,  to  it,  Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah. 
It  differs  from  the  former  in  being  the  work  of 
one  author,  whose  characteristic  conceptions,  in- 
terests, and  manner  make  it  easy  to  distinguish 
his  writing  from  the  sources  he  incorporates. 
His  peculiarities  are  the  better  known  because 
there  is  so  much  of  his  own  in  the  books  —  not 
far  from  half  the  matter  contained  in  them. 

The  succession  of  the  high  priests  is  brought 
down  to  Jaddua,  who  was  contemporary  with 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  lists  of  heads  of  priestly 
and  levitical  families  are  given  in  Neh.  12  for 
the  reign  of  Darius  (Codomannus),  the  last  Per- 
sian king.  The  book  can,  therefore,  not  be  put 
much,  if  any,  before  300  b.  c,  and  more  probably 
it  was  written  in  the  following  century. 

The  history  begins  with  the  death  of  Saul  and 
the  election  of  David  as  king  by  all  Israel  at 
Hebron  (1  Chron.  10-11).  The  preceding  chap- 
ters are  filled  with  genealogies,  beginning  with 
Adam.  Twenty-six  verses  bring  us  to  Abraham, 
and  the  second  chapter  opens  with  the  sons  of 
Israel,  while  the  third  is  a  list  of  the  sons  of  Davi(J 
116 


CHRONICLES  117 

and  of  his  successors  on  the  throne  to  the  fall  of 
the  kingdom,  with  the  descendants  of  the  last 
king  through  several  generations.  These  gene- 
alogies, to  which  historical  notices  of  different 
kinds  are  frequently  attached,  are  in  part  com- 
piled from  various  places  in  the  Pentateuch  and 
Historical  Books,  in  part  more  freely  reproduced 
from  such  passages;  but  a  large  remainder  has  no 
parallel  in  the  older  work.  The  author,  here  as 
elsewhere,  evidently  attaches  great  importance 
to  these  lists,  in  particular  to  those  which  enabled 
the  families  of  his  own  time,  clerical  and  lay,  or 
the  inhabitants  of  towns  and  villages,  to  trace 
their  pedigree  back  to  remote  times. 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  the  historical  nar- 
rative sets  in  with  David,  and  that  the  first  event 
of  his  reign  recorded  is  the  taking  of  Jerusalem; 
for  Jerusalem  is  from  first  to  last  the  center  of  the 
author's  interest.  He  writes  the  history  of  Judah 
alone,  touching  upon  the  kingdom  of  Israel  only 
in  its  relation  to  Judah.  The  desire  to  magnify 
and  glorify  the  kingdom  of  Judah  in  its  great 
days,  especially  under  David  and  Solomon,  to 
represent  it  as  the  most  powerful,  wealthy,  and 
magnificent  among  the  nations,  not  only  of  its 
time  but  of  any  time,  frequently  expresses  itself 
in  enormous  exaggerations.  David  could  raise  a 
native  army  of  a  million  and  a  half,  almost  as 
many  as,  according  to  Herodotus  —  who  cer- 
tainly does  not  underestimate  the  numbers  — 
Xerxes  mustered  from  the  whole  Persian  empire 
for  the  invasion  of  Greece;  he  laid  away,  "out 
of  his  poverty,"  to  build  the  temple,  a  hundred 


118  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

thousand  talents  of  gold  and  a  million  talents  of 
silver  —  say  five  times  the  public  debt  of  the 
United  States  in  1910;  at  the  dedication  of  the 
temple  Solomon  sacrificed  22,000  bullocks  and 
120,000  sheep  and  goats;  and  so  on.  It  is  evident 
that  the  author  has  raised  the  figures  out  of  the 
grasp  of  his  own  imagination. 

From  the  same  motive,  if  it  is  possible  to  avoid 
it,  he  tells  nothing  to  discredit  the  kings  whom 
he  thus  extols.  David's  sin  in  taking  a  census  is 
necessarily  related,  because  the  sequel  of  it  was 
the  choice  of  a  site  for  the  future  temple,  but, 
characteristically,  not  God  but  Satan  tempted 
him  to  number  the  people;  otherwise  none  of  the 
misdeeds  and  misfortunes  which  are  set  down  so 
impartially  in  2  Samuel  is  so  much  as  alluded  to 
by  the  Chronicler;  David  is  in  his  pages  the  model 
king.  Solomon  fares  as  well;  nothing  is  said  of  the 
perverting  influence  of  his  foreign  wives  nor  the 
temples  he  erected  to  their  gods.  Indeed,  his 
piety  is  such  that  he  will  not  allow  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  apparently  the  only  foreign  wife  the 
Chronicler  gives  him,  to  live  in  the  city  of  David, 
for  the  neighborhood  of  the  ark  is  holy.  Solomon's 
press-gangs  were  one  of  the  greatest  grievances 
of  the  tribes;  the  author  of  Chronicles  takes  pains 
to  aver  that  Solomon  raised  his  corvee  from  the 
remnants  of  the  Hittites  and  other  heathen;  no 
Israelites  were  put  to  such  work.  In  Kings  we 
read  that  Solomon  ceded  twenty  towns  in  Galilee 
to  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  in  payment  for  materials 
and  services  in  the  building  of  the  temple;  to  the 
Chronicler  such  a  transaction  is  unimaginable. 


CHRONICLES  119 

and  he  amends  it  by  making  Hiram  give  the  towns 
to  Solomon. 

All  this  is,  however,  incidental  to  the  main 
purpose  of  the  book  to  exalt  Jerusalem  as  the 
religious  capital,  its  temple  as  the  place  which 
God  has  chosen  for  his  abode,  its  liturgy  as  the 
correct  form  of  worship,  its  priests  and  levites  as 
the  only  ministry  of  valid  orders  and  unimpeach- 
able succession.  It  is  not  solely  the  pride  of  the 
churchman  which  prompts  him  to  dwell  on  these 
things.  The  assertion  is  so  emphasized  and  reit- 
erated that  we  can  hardly  mistake  in  inferring 
a  controversial  animus,  especially  when  we  recall 
that  at  the  time  of  writing  there  was  a  rival 
temple  on  Mt.  Gerizim  near  Shechem,  at  one  of 
the  most  venerable  holy  places  in  the  land. 

This  temple  is  said  by  Josephus  to  have  been 
erected  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
in  avowed  rivalry  to  the  temple  in  Jerusalem. 
The  high  priests  of  the  Samaritan  temple  were 
a  branch  of  the  Jewish  high-priestly  line,  its 
ritual  was  the  same,  the  Pentateuch  was  the 
Law  in  Shechem  as  well  as  in  Jerusalem.  If 
the  Jews  maintained  that  Jerusalem  was  the 
only  place  in  the  land  where  sacrifice  might 
lawfully  be  made  to  God,  the  Samaritans  made 
the  same  exclusive  claim  for  their  temple:  She- 
chem, not  Jerusalem,  was  the  place  (unnamed 
in  Deuteronomy)  which  God  had  chosen  out  of 
all  the  tribes  to  put  his  name  there.  At  Shechem 
was  held  the  first  great  religious  assembly  of 
Israel  after  the  invasion  of  Canaan;  there,  on 
Gerizim,  the  first  altar  of  Jehovah  was  erected 


u 


120  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

by  his  express  command  (see  Deut.  xi.  26-29; 
Jos.  viii.  30-35;  Jos.  24;  especially  Deut.  xxvii. 
4,  where  "Ebal"  in  the  Jewish  Bible  is  an  antisa- 
maritan  substitute  for  the  original  "Gerizim"). 
The  rivalry  of  Shechem  was  thus  a  serious 
menace,  and  so  the  Jerusalem  Jews  treated  it. 

In  their  eyes  the  people  of  the  old  territory 
of  Ephraim  were  descendants  of  the  assorted 
heathen  whom  the  Assyrian  kings  had  colonized 
in  the  cities  of  Samaria  after  transplanting  to 
the  eastern  provinces  of  the  empire  the  old  Is- 
raelite population  of  the  region  (see  2  Kgs.  17  — 
a  very  late  passage  —  noting  especially  vs.  34, 
"unto  this  day").  On  the  other  hand,  Jeru- 
salem and  the  region  about  it,  after  lying  waste 
for  seventy  years,  had  been  repeopled  under 
Cyrus  by  Jews  of  pure  race  returning  from  the 
exile  in  Babylonia,  who  rebuilt  the  temple  and 
restored  the  worship  as  prescribed  in  the  law. 
They  were  surrounded  by  the  "peoples  of  the 
land,"  who  were  regarded  as  descendants  of 
the  ancient  heathen  of  Canaan  with  whom  inter- 
marriage was  forbidden  in  the  law.  This  is 
the  Chronicler's  representation:  the  returned 
exiles  are  the  only  genuine  stock,  their  priest- 
hood the  only  legitimate  sons  of  Aaron,  the  rest 
of  the  ministry,  down  to  the  temple  slaves,  was 
authenticated  by  recorded  pedigrees  (see  Ezra 
ii.  59-63),  and  the  elaborate  liturgy  of  his  own 
time  the  same  in  all  particulars  which  had  been 
used  in  the  temple  from  its  foundation. 

The  author  has  an  exaggerated  interest  in 
this  liturgy,  and  especially  in  the  part  taken  in 


CHRONICLES  121 

it  by  the  minor  orders  of  the  clergy,  levites, 
musicians,  singers,  door-keepers,  and  the  rest. 
The  levites  are  provided  for  in  the  Pentateuch, 
but  the  orchestra  and  choruses,  according  to  the 
Chronicler,  were  organized  by  David  (1  Chron. 
23-26),  who  thus  provided  for  the  proper  execu- 
tion of  his  Psalms.  When  a  great  religious 
function  is  described,  the  music  invariably  comes 
in  for  a  prominent  notice  (e.  g.  2  Chron.  v. 
12  f.). 

We  have  seen  that  the  historians  of  the  seventh 
and  following  centuries,  the  so-called  deuterono- 
mist  school,  wrote  or  interpreted  the  history 
to  exemplify  the  doctrine  that  defection  from  the 
national  religion  is  surely  punished  by  national 
calamities.  The  Chronicler's  doctrine  of  retri- 
bution is  at  once  harder  and  more  individual. 
He  also  turns  it  about:  unusual  suffering  is 
proof  of  sin.  Thus,  Asa  was,  according  to  Kings, 
a  conspicuously  good  king,  but  in  his  old  age  he 
had  the  gout.  The  Chronicler,  by  the  mouth 
of  a  prophet,  explains  why :  he  relied  on  the  king 
of  Syria  to  help  him  against  Israel,  instead  of 
relying  on  the  Lord.  The  king  clapped  the 
prophet  into  prison  for  meddling  with  affairs 
.of  state,  and  so  added  another  affront  to  God. 
He  was  impenitent,  however,  for  though  the 
gout  was  very  bad,  "y^^  sought  he  not  unto 
the  Lord,  but  to  the  physicians."  Uzziah, 
another  godly  king,  was  in  his  later  years  afflicted 
with  leprosy,  a  disease  which  was  regarded  as 
peculiarly  the  stroke  of  God.  The  Chronicler 
gives  the  reason:    the  king  presumed  to   burn 


122  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

incense  on  the  altar  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the 
priest,  and  was  smitten  with  leprosy  on  the  spot. 

There  is  no  reason  to  impugn  the  author's  good 
faith  in  such  emendations  of  his  sources.  He 
thought  he  knew  the  laws  of  history,  and  if  in 
the  particular  instance  the  record  did  not  cor- 
respond, it  must  be  defective.  But  whatever 
apology  may  be  made  for  his  good  intentions,  it 
need  hardly  be  said  that  the  unsupported  testi- 
mony of  a  doctrinaire  historian  who  deals  so 
sovereignly  with  the  facts  is  of  no  weight. 

The  Chronicler  names  a  considerable  number 
of  books  as  authorities  for  different  periods  of 
the  history;  the  Book  of  the  Kings  of  Judah  and 
Israel  (or  Israel  and  Judah)  and  the  Book  of 
the  Kings  of  Israel  are  repeatedly  cited  for 
things  not  related  in  our  Book  of  Kings.  For 
more  information  about  Joash  the  reader  is 
referred  to  the  "Midrash  of  the  Book  of  Kings," 
and  for  Abijah  to  the  "Midrash  of  the  Prophet 
Iddo,"  titles  that  in  later  times,  at  least,  would 
designate  an  edifying  exposition  in  which  full 
license  was  given  to  the  imagination  to  embroider 
the  theme  with  picturesque  inventions.  The 
favorite  references,  however,  are  to  writings 
bearing  the  names  of  prophets  —  Samuel,  Nathan, 
Gad,  Ahijah,  Iddo,  Shemaiah,  Jehu  son  of 
Hanani.  The  title  History  of  Samuel  the  Seer, 
of  Nathan  the  Prophet,  and  so  on,  may  mean 
either  about  Samuel  or  by  Samuel.  Very  likely 
the  author  entertained  the  theory  which  sub- 
suquently  prevailed  among  the  Jews  that  in 
each  age  the  prophets  wrote  down  the  events 


CHRONICLES  1^3 

of  their  own  time,  in  which  many  of  them  had  a 
conspicuous  part. 

The  question  is  of  no  other  interest;  for  an 
examination  of  the  extracts  from  his  sources 
which  the  Chronicler  has  incorporated  or  con- 
densed shows  that  (with  small  possible  excep- 
tions to  be  considered  hereafter)  his  material 
was  all  taken  from  our  Book  of  Kings.  This 
enables  us  to  confront  his  history  of  Judah  with 
his  sources  and  acquaint  ourselves  with  his 
habitual  way  of  dealing  with  them,  an  investi- 
gation not  only  instructive  for  his  method,  but 
of  the  greatest  importance  when  we  come^  to 
the  Chronicler's  history  of  the  Persian  period, 
where,  for  the  most  part,  his  sources  are  not 
independently  preserved. 

In  the  first  place  it  will  be  noticed  that  he 
has  selected  from  the  history  in  Samuel  and 
Kings  the  parts  which  particularly  interested 
him  for  their  own  sake,  such  as  the  description 
of  religious  ceremonies,  or  could  be  used  as 
a  text  for  the  doctrines  he  had  most  at  heart, 
and  has  therefore  passed  over  a  very  large  part 
of  the  content  of  his  source.  Precisely  so,  the 
author  of  Kings,  two  centuries  earher,  had  dealt 
with  his  sources,  though  with  a  different  interest. 
What  the  Chronicler  chose  to  include  he  gener- 
ally copied  out  without  much  change;  the  present 
variations  in  the  text  are  chiefly  due  to  diver- 
gent transmission.  (Compare,  for  illustration,  1 
Chron.  x.  1-xi.  47  with  1  Sam.  31  and  2  Sam. 
xxiii.  8-39,  or  1  Chron.  xvii.  1-xx.  8  with  2  Sam. 
7,  8,  10  and  12.)    Often  he  introduces  in  these 


124  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

extracts,  or  appends  to  them,  notes  of  his  own, 
which  would  in  almost  all  cases  be  certainly 
recognizable  on  internal  evidence  even  if  we 
had  not  the  text  of  Kings  before  us.  In  a  few 
places  he  condenses  or  abridges  the  narrative 
of  Kings,  as  in  2  Chron.  xxxii.  1-23  compared 
with  2  Kgs.  xviii.  13-xix.  37. 

Of  alterations,  or,  from  the  author's  own  point 
of  view,  corrections,  of  the  older  history  several 
examples  have  been  given  above.  One  more, 
of  a  striking  character,  may  be  cited,  viz.  2  Chron. 
xxii.  10-xxiii.  21  compared  with  2  Kgs.  11.  The 
Carian  mercenaries  of  the  guard  in  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  temple  (2  Kgs.  xi.  4)  were  a 
plain  profanation,  of  which  the  pious  chief  priest 
could  not  have  been  guilty.  The  Chronicler 
accordingly  rewrites  the  story,  substituting  the 
levites  (note  2  Chron.  xxiii.  6)  for  the  obnoxious 
heathen.  Finally,  he  sometimes  freely  expands 
on  his  text,  as  in  the  building  of  Solomon's 
temple  (2  Chron.  2-3). 

In  view  of  the  Chronicler's  multiplied  refer- 
ences to  authorities,  it  has  frequently  been  as- 
sumed that  his  immediate  source  was  not  the  Books 
of  Samuel  and  Kings,  but  a  work  of  a  "  midrashic  " 
character  —  that  is,  euphemistically,  a  work  with 
more  concern  for  edification  than  for  historical 
verity  —  written  not  long  before  his  time  from 
the  same  point  of  view  and  with  the  same  salient 
interests,  which  the  Chronicler  in  all  simplicity 
took  for  authentic  history.  This  ghost  source 
eludes,  however,  all  attempts  to  catch  it  actually 
walking.   It  may  perfectly  well  be  that  the  Chron- 


CHRONICLES  125 

icier  did  not  invent  everything  in  the  book  which 
is  plainly  invention,  but  if  not,  we  can  only  apply 
the  famous  contribution  of  an  undergraduate 
to  Homeric  criticism,  "the  Iliad  was  not  written 
by  Homer,  but  by  another  man  of  the  same 
name." 

There  remain  a  few  short  notices,  not  derived 
from  the  Pentateuch  or  Historical  Books,  whose 
contents  and  form  suggest  that  they  are  scraps 
which  the  Chronicler  picked  up  from  some  other 
source,  e.  g.  the  migration  of  the  Simeonites, 
2  Chron.  iv.  24-43  (in  the  main).  But  these 
passages  are  so  few,  and  generally  of  so  little 
historical  importance,  that  the  question  need 
here  not  be  pursued  farther. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

EZRA  AND   NEHEMIAH 

The  books  which  in  our  Bible  bear  the  names 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  (in  the  Jewish  Bible,  one 
book,  Ezra)  are  the  immediate  continuation  of 
Chronicles,  by  the  same  author.  When  they 
were  divided,  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22-23,  the  neces- 
sary sequel  of  vss.  20-21  was  repeated  at  the 
beginning  of  Ezra  (Ezra  i.  1-3).  The  reason  for 
the  division  is  plain:  down  to  the  end  of  the 
exile  the  work  was  no  more  than  an  epitome  of 
the  Pentateuch  and  Historical  Books;  but  from 
the  time  of  Cyrus  to  Alexander  it  was  the  only 
history  the  Jews  possessed.  This  part  was 
therefore  separated  from  what  went  before  as 
the  book  of  post-exilic  history,  and  named  "Ezra" 
after  the  figure  most  prominent  in  the  earlier 
half  of  it,  on  the  same  principle  that  the  history 
of  the  founding  of  the  kingdom  was  named 
Samuel.  The  subdivision  into  two  books  of 
Ezra  as  in  the  Greek  Bible,  or  as  we  name  them 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  is  apparently  due  to  Chris- 
tian hands. 

This  part  of  the  Chronicler's  work  begins, 
as  has  been  said,  with  an  edict  of  Cyrus  permit- 
ting the  Jews  in  Babylonia  to  return  to  Jeru- 
salem and  rebuild  the  temple.  There  follows 
126 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  127 

a  list  (given  again  in  Neh.  7)  of  the  families  who 
availed  themselves  of  this  permission,  shortly 
after  538  b.  c.  The  restoration  of  the  temple  is 
begun,  then  stopped  by  the  machinations  of 
their  enemies  under  Xerxes  (486-465  b.  c.) 
and  Artaxerxes  (465-424  b.  c),  but  happily 
completed  (by  the  same  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua 
who  began  it)  in  the  sixth  year  of  Darius  (Nothus, 
424-405  B.  c).  "After  these  things,  in  the 
reign  of  Artaxerxes,"  Ezra  came  up  from  Baby- 
lonia, armed  with  large  powers  by  an  edict  of 
the  king,  to  order  things  according  to  the  law 
of  his  God  in  the  province  "beyond  the  river" 
(Euphrates,  Ezra  7  f.).  He  found  things  enough 
that  needed  reform;  particularly  the  frequent 
intermarriages  of  all  classes,  including  the  clergy, 
with  the  "peoples  of  the  land,"  and  succeeded 
in  inducing  the  Jews,  in  a  great  act  of  penitence, 
to  divorce  these  "foreign  women"  (cc.  9-10). 
At  this  point  the  History  of  Nehemiah  sets 
in  abruptly  in  the  form  of  personal  memoirs, 
Nehemiah,  a  favorite  cup-bearer  of  the  Persian 
king  Artaxerxes,  hearing  that  the  wall  of  Jeru- 
salem was  broken  down  and  the  gates  burned, 
asks  permission  to  go  thither  and  repair  the 
damaged  fortifications,  and  is  sent  with  a  com- 
mission as  royal  governor  of  the  district.  In 
spite  of  dangerous  opposition  from  jealous 
neighbors  in  Samaria  and  elsewhere,  by  the 
utmost  endeavors  he  accomplishes  the  rebuilding 
of  the  walls  in  a  very  brief  space  (Neh.  1-6). 
In  all  this  there  is  not  so  much  as  a  mention  of 
Ezra,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been  now  thirteen 


128  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

years  in  Jerusalem,  but  In  Neh.  8  he  suddenly 
appears  on  the  scene  with  his  law-book.  The 
law  is  read,  and  the  people  solemnly  covenant  by 
sign  and  seal  to  observe  it;  Nehemiah's  name 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  signers,  but  other- 
wise he  is  entirely  ignored  (Neh.  8-10).  Lists 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  of  other 
settlements,  a  catalogue  of  the  priests  and  levites 
who  came  up  under  Cyrus,  and  a  description  of 
the  dedication  of  the  walls,  in  which  the  singers 
shine,  fill  Neh.  11-12.  That  the  Chronicler  is 
the  author  is  palpable.  Finally,  in  c.  13,  Nehe- 
miah,  who  had  returned  to  court,  reappears,  and 
finds  a  sad  state  of  things;  a  foreigner,  and  an 
Ammonite  at  that,  lodged  by  the  high  priest  in 
a  chamber  of  the  temple,  flagrant  violations 
of  the  sabbath  by  market  men,  and  the  old 
grievance  of  mixed  marriages  in  full  gait.  Even 
the  high  priest's  family  was  not  pure:  one  of  its 
scions  was  son-in-law  to  Nehemiah's  arch-enemy, 
Sanballat  of  Samaria.  Naturally  Nehemiah 
expelled  him. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  give  this  somewhat 
detailed  synopsis  of  the  books  to  make  intelligi- 
ble the  problems  they  present.  On  this  point  it 
is  further  to  be  observed  that  the  book  is  not  all 
written  in  Hebrew:  Ezra  iv.  8-vi.  18;  vii.  12-26, 
containing  chiefly  correspondence  wdth  the  Per- 
sian court  and  documents  issuing  from  it,  are  in 
Aramaic,  the  official  language  of  the  western 
provinces  of  the  empire.  Moreover,  the  oldest 
Greek  translation  of  the  Chronicler's  history, 
part  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  Bible  of  the 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  129 

church  as  1  Esdras,  differs  both  in  matter  and 
order  from  the  Jewish  standard  text  and  the  later 
Greek  version  ;  it  contains,  for  example,  the 
famous  exhibition  of  wits  by  the  three  Jewish 
youths  at  the  court  of  Darius  (1  Esdr.  3  f.),  as  a 
result  of  which  Zerubbabel  obtains  from  Darius 
permission  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem.  In  1  Esdras 
the  reading  of  the  law  (Neh.  8)  immediately  fol- 
lows the  act  of  penitence  for  the  strange  wives 
(Ezra  10). 

A  large  part  of  Ezra-Nehemiah  exhibits  the 
Chronicler's  familiar  motives  and  manner;  in 
other  places  he  has  incorporated  extracts  from  the 
sources,  with  or  without  annotations  of  his  own. 
Of  these  sources  the  only  ones  which  have  been 
independently  preserved  are  the  prophecies  of 
Haggai  and  Zechariah,  from  which  the  author 
takes,  however,  no  more  than  the  facts  that  at 
the  instance  of  these  prophets  Zerubbabel  and 
Joshua  began  to  rebuild  the  temple  in  the  second 
year  of  Darius  (Ezra  v.  1  f .) ;  the  completion  of 
the  work  by  the  same  hands,  which  according  to 
the  Chronicler  took  place  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Darius  and  was  celebrated  in  a  great  dedication 
ceremony,  is  in  Zech.  iv.  9  still  prediction.  An- 
other source  which  stands  out  distinctly  is  the 
Memoirs  of  Nehemiah,  of  which  Neh.  1-6  (ex- 
cept c.  3)  is  a  solid  piece.  There  is,  moreover,  a 
series  of  documents:  Ezra  1,  the  edict  of  Cyrus; 
Ezra  iv.  7-vi.  12,  complaints  to  the  court  of  the 
Jews'  building  operations,  and  answers  of  the 
kings  Artaxerxes  and  Darius  respectively;  Ezra 
vii.  11-26,  commission  of  Artaxerxes  to  Ezra.    A 


130  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

diplomatic  appearance  is  given  to  these  by  the 
fact  that  —  except  the  edict  of  Cyrus  —  they  are 
all  couched  in  the  official  Aramaic;  and,  inas- 
much as  in  cc.  iv.  7-vi.  18  the  connecting  links 
of  narrative  are  also  in  Aramaic,  the  presumption 
is  that  this  material  was  taken  bodily  from  an 
Aramaic  book  in  which  the  letters  and  rescripts 
were  already  embodied. 

Finally,  a  distinct  source  is  commonly  assumed 
for  the  history  of  Ezra.  This  is  chiefly  told  of 
Ezra  in  the  third  person;  but  in  some  parts  for 
a  considerable  space  together  Ezra  speaks  in  the 
first  person  (I  or  we),  and  it  is  accordingly  thought 
by  most  scholars  that  the  Chronicler  had  in  his 
hands  Memoirs  of  Ezra  as  well  as  of  Nehemiah, 
which  in  part  he  incorporated  intact  (e.  g.  Ezra 
8  f.),  in  part  recast  into  the  form  of  a  narrative 
about  Ezra  (as  in  Ezra  10;  Neh.  8  f.).  It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  story  of  Ezra,  whatever  its  origin, 
is  badly  dislocated:  the  chapters  which  now 
stand  in  Neh.  8-10  have  no  business  there,  and, 
as  has  been  noticed  above,  in  1  Esdras  the  read- 
ing of  the  law  immediately  follows  Ezra  10.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  a  gap  at  the  end  of  Ezra 
8;  chapter  9  cannot  well  be  its  original  sequel. 
And,  lastly,  Neh.  9  f .  does  not  seem  naturally  to 
follow  c.  8.  The  most  probable  restoration  of 
the  order  is  Ezra  8;  Neh.  vii.  70-73;  8;  Ezra  9- 
10;  Neh.  9-10.  This  arrangement  gives  a  contin- 
uous and  consistent  story,  and  the  numerous 
dates  fall  into  sequence.  Incidentally  another 
connection  is  thus  restored,  Neh.  11  follows  vii. 
5^.    The  list  (Neh.  vii.  5^-60)  of  the  exiles  who 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  131 

returned  with  Zerubbabel  and  his  company  (  = 
Ezra  2)  is  obviously  not  what  is  required  here. 
The  dismemberment  of  the  story  of  Ezra  is  not 
to  be  attributed  to  the  Chronicler,  but  to  misad- 
ventures of  copying  such  as  are  not  infrequent  in 
ancient  manuscripts. 

The  extract  from  the  Memoirs  of  Nehemiah 
breaks  off  with  Neh.  6;  though  perhaps  in  vii. 
1-4;  xi.  1-3  the  Chronicler  has  utilized  in  his 
own  way  some  further  sentences.  In  Neh.  xii. 
27-43,  the  procession  at  the  dedication  of  the 
walls  is  described,  ostensibly  by  Nehemiah,  in  the 
first  person,  and  the  passage  has  on  this  ground 
been  taken  for  an  extract  from  the  Memoirs.  It 
is,  however,  an  unmistakable  piece  of  the  Chron- 
icler's own  composition.  In  c.  13,  also,  Nehemiah, 
in  the  first  person,  gives  an  account  of  his  reform- 
ing enterprises  on  a  second  visit  to  Jerusalem. 
An  unaltered  extract  from  the  Memoirs,  how- 
ever, the  chapter  cannot  well  be;  the  Chron- 
icler's vein  crops  out  in  too  many  places. 

It  does  not  belong  to  our  present  task  to  discuss 
the  historical  value  of  these  sources;  but  it  may 
not  be  amiss  to  say  that  the  authority  of  the 
Memoirs  of  Nehemiah  alone  is  unimpeached. 
The  question  is  of  peculiar  interest  in  the  case  of 
the  supposed  Memoirs  of  Ezra,  because  Neh.  8  has 
been  generally  understood  by  recent  critics  to  be 
the  account  of  the  formal  introduction  of  a 
new,  or  newly  codified,  law,  the  Priests'  Code  or 
the  Pentateuch,  which  Ezra  brought  up  from 
Babylonia. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

STORY   books:    ESTHER,   RUTH,   JONAH 

Besides  the  older  and  younger  historical  books 
we  have  been  considering,  the  Jewish  Bible  con- 
tains some  examples  of  what  we  should  call  the 
short  story,  and  the  church  has  preserved  others. 
The  canonical  books  of  this  class  are  Esther,  Ruth, 
and  Jonah;  among  the  apocrypha  are  Judith  and 
Tobit;  others,  such  as  3  Maccabees,  are  found 
in  manuscripts  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Bibles, 
or  in  Oriental  translations,  but  did  not  attain 
official  recognition  of  any  of  the  great  churches. 
These  stories,  which,  as  might  be  expected,  differ 
widely  in  literary  quality  as  well  as  in  subject 
and  motive,  are  doubtless  only  the  rare  sur- 
vivors of  a  larger  literature  of  this  kind,  but  they 
suffice  to  give  us  a  notion  of  the  popular  reading 
of  the  Jews  in  the  last  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  It  would  be  more  exact,  perhaps,  to 
say  the  popular  story-telling,  for  probably  the 
written  books  were  chiefly  used  by  the  story- 
tellers, who  reproduced  their  contents  orally  and 
freely,  just  as  the  Moslem  story-tellers  to-day 
recite  stories  from  the  Arabian  Nights  or  the 
Antar  romance.  Some  of  them,  however,  like 
Esther,  attached  themselves  to  popular  festivals, 
and  were  recited  or  read  as  part  of  the  celebration. 
132 


ESTHER,  RUTH,  JONAH  133 


Esther 

Esther  is  the  story  of  a  beautiful  Jewess  of 
Susa  whom  Xerxes  raises  from  the  ranks  of  his 
concubines  to  be  his  queen,  and  who  uses  her  in- 
fluence over  him  to  save  her  people  from  a  general 
massacre  which  the  grand  vizier  has  prepared  for 
them  by  way  of  avenging  an  affront  from  one  of 
the  race.  The  plot  is  developed  with  noteworthy 
art.  The  deposition  of  Vashti,  which,  so  far  as*^ 
the  main  matter  goes,  is  necessary  only  to  make  * 
room  for  Esther,  under  the  author's  hand  becomes 
a  brilliant  first  act.  The  embroilment  of  Mor- 
decai  and  Haman  is  skillfully  managed;  the  stiff- 
necked  Jew  refuses  homage  to  the  proud  vizier, 
who  schemes  a  generous  revenge.  Esther  ventures 
her  life  for  her  people  by  intruding  into  the  audi- 
ence chamber,  but  the  denouement  is  artfully  re- 
tarded —  instead  of  a  pathetic  plea  for  the  im- 
periled Jews,  an  invitation  for  the  king  and  his 
prime  minister  to  a  petit  diner  in  the  queen's 
apartments!  At  the  banquet  the  king  offers 
Esther  her  wish,  but  again  the  issue  is  post- 
poned. Haman,  in  his  elation  at  such  signal 
marks  of  queenly  favor,  builds  a  gallows  for 
Mordecai  seventy-five  feet  high  —  and  next  day 
has  to  parade  the  streets  of  the  capital  at  the 
bridle  of  the  hated  Jew's  horse  proclaiming  him 
the  object  of  the  king's  special  honor! 

The  scene  in  the  banqueting  hall  when  Esther 
at  last  makes  her  petition  is  highly  dramatic.  She 
makes  it  a  plea  for  her  own  life,  "for  we  are  sold. 


134  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

I  and  my  people,  to  be  destroyed,  to  be  slain,  and 
to  perish."  The  king,  who  has  no  inkling  that 
she  is  a  Jewess,  and  is  incensed  at  the  thought  of 
such  a  plot  against  his  queen,  angrily  asks,  "  Who 
is  he,  and  where  is  he,  that  durst  presume  in  his 
heart  to  do  so?"  The  climax  so  skillfully  pre- 
pared comes  in  the  stunning  words,  "This  wicked 
Haman  here!"  Thenceforth  the  action  marches 
swiftly :  the  king  bursts  out  of  the  room  to  collect 
himself  by  a  turn  in  the  garden;  the  fallen  vizier 
sinks  a  suppliant  on  the  queen's  couch,  where  the 
king,  returning,  finds  him;  the  sinister  eunuch 
standing  by  describes  the  fine  new  gallows 
Haman  has  at  home,  ready  for  Mordecai,  and  on 
his  own  gallows,  in  poetic  justice,  Haman  is 
hanged,  fifty  cubits  high!  Mordecai  succeeds  to 
the  seal  of  state,  and  conceives  the  counter-stroke 
by  which,  instead  of  the  heathen  massacring  the 
Jews,  the  Jews  slaughter  the  heathen.  An  annual 
festival  celebrates  the  joyful  issue. 

For  the  full  account  of  Mordecai's  greatness  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  royal  annals  of  Media 
and  Persia,  where  it  will  be  found,  he  says,  re- 
corded along  with  the  mighty  deeds  of  Xerxes, 
including  his  subjugation  of  the  Greeks.  Despite 
this  authority,  it  should  be  unnecessary  to  say 
that  the  Book  of  Esther  is  a  work  of  fiction. 
Whether  it  is  pure  invention,  or  whether  some  of 
the  incidents  are  borrowed  from  fact,  is  an  idle 
question,  because  a  wholly  unanswerable  one. 
If  the  local  color,  which  is  laid  on  pretty  thick,  is 
good,  as  some  modern  archseologists  aver,  it 
would  not  be  strange  that  a  Jewish  novelist  who 


ESTHER,  RUTH,    JONAH  135 

wrote  not  so  long  after  the  passing  of  Persia 
should  prove  as  well  acquainted  with  it  as  a  mod- 
ern archaeologist. 

Some  recent  interpreters  find  in  the  story  a 
mythical  background:  Esther  is  Ishtar,  the 
Babylonian  goddess  of  love;  Mordecai,  "Mar- 
duk's  man,'*  was  originally  Marduk  himself,  the 
great  god  of  Babylon;  the  name  of  Haman  sounds 
something  like  one  way  of  pronouncing  the  name 
of  an  Elamite  god  in  the  epic  of  Gilgamesh.  The 
triumph  of  Mordecai  and  Esther  over  Haman 
would  thus  be  an  echo  of  ancient  strife  between 
the  gods  of  Babylonia  and  Elam.  It  will  be  ob- 
vious, however,  to  the  mythologically  unsophis- 
ticated understanding,  that  if  these  very  problem- 
atical combinations  are  right,  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Esther  was  quite  innocent  of  them,  and 
therefore  that  for  the  interpretation  of  the  story 
he  tells  they  are  wholly  irrelevant. 

The  Book  of  Esther,  it  was  long  ago  observed, 
is  singular  among  the  books  of  the  Bible  in  that 
there  is  no  mention  of  God  in  it.  It  is  Jewish 
with  a  sanguinary  loyalty  to  race,  but  of  Judaism 
as  religion  there  is  not  a  trace;  it  is  in  fact  some- 
what obtrusive  by  its  absence.  When  Mordecai 
warns  Esther  that  if  she  fails  her  people  in  its  hour 
of  need,  deliverance  will  come  "from  another 
place,"  the  word  God  is  ostentatiously  avoided; 
before  her  great  adventure  she  fasts  three  days, 
but  there  is  no  suggestion  of  prayer;  in  the  cele- 
brations of  rescue  and  the  annual  commemora- 
tion of  it  there  is  feasting  and  gladness,  but  no 
thanksgiving   to   God.     It   is   no   wonder   that 


136  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

orthodox  rabbis  doubted  the  inspiration  of  so 
conspicuously  secular  a  romance,  nor  that  the 
Greek  translators  made  good  the  religious  defi- 
ciencies of  the  book  by  putting  pious  prayers  into 
the  mouth  of  Mordecai  and  Esther  at  the  appro- 
priate junctures. 

The  age  of  the  book  cannot  be  very  closely  de- 
termined; it  is  pretty  certainly  not  older  than 
the  third  century  b.  c,  more  likely  from  the 
second.  A  note  at  the  end  of  the  Greek  version 
says  that  this  translation  was  brought  from  Jeru- 
salem to  Egypt  in  the  year  which  corresponds  to 
114  B.  c.  The  earliest  mention  of  the  festival  of 
Purim  is  in  2  Mace.  xv.  36,  where  it  is  called 
Mordecai  Day. 

Ruth 

The  story  of  Ruth  is  laid  in  the  time  of  the 
judges,  for  which  reason  it  was  placed  in  the 
Greek  Bible  and  in  modern  versions  between 
Judges  and  Samuel.  It  tells  of  a  young  Moa- 
bitess,  the  childless  widow  of  a  Judsean  from  Beth- 
lehem, who  accompanies  her  widowed  mother-in- 
law  back  to  Bethlehem,  embracing  her  religion. 
Ruth  goes  out  to  glean  after  the  reapers  and  by 
chance  comes  to  the  fields  of  Boaz,  a  kinsman 
of  her  husband,  who  shows  her  kindness.  By 
Naomi's  contrivance,  she  reveals  to  him  who  she 
is  under  circumstances  that  appeal  to  his  chivalry, 
and,  after  a  nearer  of  kin  has  waived  his  right, 
Boaz  takes  the  widow  with  the  land,  and  they 
live  happy  ever  after.    Their  son  Obed  is  David's 


ESTHER,   RUTH,  JONAH  137 

grandfather.  The  legal  proceedings  in  the  last 
chapter  are  different  from  anything  we  otherwise 
know  of  Israelite  custom,  but  our  ignorance  is  no 
warrant  for  assuming  that  the  usage  there  de- 
scribed is  fictitious. 

If  the  story  of  Esther  is  told  with  dramatic 
power,  that  of  Ruth  is  told  with  idyllic  grace. 
The  pathos  of  the  moment  in  which  Naomi  bids 
her  daughters-in-law  return  to  their  mothers* 
homes  and  Ruth  refuses  to  part  from  her  is  un- 
forced. The  picture  of  the  gleaners  in  the  fields; 
the  delicacy  with  which  the  night  at  the  thresh- 
ing-floor is  treated;  the  scene  at  the  city  gate, 
where  the  waiver  and  redemption  are  witnessed 
and  the  shoe  given  in  attestation;  the  blessing 
of  the  townsmen  on  the  union  —  all  have  the 
charm  of  simple  and  unaffected  narrative. 

The  question  what  the  book  was  written  for 
has  received  diverse  answers.  It  has  been 
thought  that  the  author  meant  to  protest  against 
the  narrowness  of  those  who  condemned  all  mar- 
riages with  foreigners  and  put  the  Moabites 
under  a  special  ban,  by  showing  that  David  him- 
self had  Moabite  blood  in  his  veins;  others  see 
the  point  of  the  book  in  the  commendation  of  the 
marriage  of  childless  widows,  not  by  brothers-in- 
law  only,  as  the  levirate  law  required,  but  by  re- 
moter kinsmen.  Others  have  conjectured  other- 
wise. In  this  state  of  the  case  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  if  the  author  had  an  ulterior  motive,  he 
concealed  it  more  successfully  than  is  common 
to  story-tellers  who  write  with  a  purpose. 

There  are  no  very  definite  signs  in  the  book  of 


138  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the 'age  in  which  it  was  written.  The  author  is 
famiUar  with  the  Hebrew  Hterature  of  the  good 
period,  and  writes  a  better  imitation  of  it  than 
some.  It  is  precisely  this  imitative  character 
which  stands  in  the  way  of  putting  the  book  in 
the  days  of  the  kingdom.  But  where,  in  the 
centuries  of  the  Persian  or  Greek  dominion  it 
belongs,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

Jonah 

The  third  of  the  short  stories,  Jonah,  is  not 
found,  like  Esther  and  Ruth,  in  the  Jewish 
Bible  in  the  miscellaneous  collection  of  "Scrip- 
tures" and  in  the  Christian  Bible  among  the 
Historical  Books,  but  in  the  prophetic  canon, 
as  one  of  the  Minor  Prophets.  The  reason 
doubtless  is  that  it  is  not  only  a  story  about  a 
prophet  and  his  mission,  but  was  thought  to 
be  written  by  himself. 

The  tale  is  too  familiar  to  have  to  be  retold 
at  length.  The  Israelite  prophet,  Jonah  the  son 
of  Amittai,  is  commissioned  by  God  to  go  to 
Nineveh  and  announce  its  impending  destruc- 
tion; to  escape  this  unwelcome  errand  he  em- 
barks on  a  Phoenician  ship  bound  for  Spain,  at 
the  other  end  of  the  world;  a  tempest  threatens 
to  engulf  the  ship;  the  seamen  cast  lots  to  dis- 
cover against  whom  the  gods  are  so  angry;  the 
lot  falls  on  Jonah,  and  he  is  cast  into  the  sea, 
which  thereupon  becomes  calm;  Jonah  is  swal- 
lowed by  a  monstrous  fish,  which  after  three 
days  sets  him  ashore  safe  and  sound.     He  goes 


ESTHER,  RUTH,  JONAH  139 

to  Nineveh  and  delivers  his  message;  the  people 
repent  of  their  sins,  and  God  repents  of  his  pur- 
pose to  destroy  them,  whereat  the  prophet  is 
very  indignant  and  upbraids  God  with  his  soft- 
heartedness :  he  expected  this  from  the  beginning 
and  therefore  tried  to  flee  to  Tarshish.  By  his 
own  grief  for  the  death  of  the  plant  "which 
sprang  up  in  a  night  and  perished  in  a  night" 
the  prophet  is  taught  the  lesson  of  the  divine 
compassion:  "How  should  I  not  have  compassion 
on  this  great  city,  Nineveh,  in  which  are  more 
than  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  human 
beings  which  do  not  know  their  right  hand  from 
their  left,  not  to  speak  of  cattle?"  With  this 
rebuke  the  book  ends. 

These  closing  words  leave  no  room  for  question 
about  the  purpose  of  the  book.  In  the  person  of 
Jonah,  the  rebuke  is  addressed  to  the  Jews,  to 
whom  God's  long-suffering  with  the  heathen 
was  a  stumbling-block.  The  greater  prophetic 
books,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  all  contain 
a  long  array  of  oracles  against  foreign  nations, 
predicting  their  total  and  remediless  destruction, 
some  of  them  very  precise  as  to  time  and  agent 
(see,  for  example,  Isa.  13  f.,  against  Babylon). 
The  fulfillment  of  these  prophecies,  the  final 
breaking  of  the  power  of  the  heathen  world, 
must  come  before  the  golden  age  of  Israel  could 
dawn.  Yet  the  generations  came  and  went  and 
the  heathen  still  ruled  the  earth!  Then,  too,  the 
Jews  doubtless  felt  that  they,  as  the  people  of 
God,  had  an  exclusive  claim  on  his  affections,  as 
he  asserted  exclusive  claims  to  theirs.    The  author 


140  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  Jonah  not  only  extends  to  mankind  God's 
word  in  Ezekiel,  "Have  I  any  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  the  wicked?  saith  the  Lord  God,  and 
not  rather  that  he  should  return  from  his  way 
and  live?"  but  he  asserts  the  all-embracing  com- 
passion of  God.  The  one  God  is  the  creator  of 
the  heathen  as  well  as  of  Israel,  his  merciful 
providence  is  over  all  his  works. 

The  higher  spirit  of  Judaism  here  reproves  the 
lower,  narrow,  exclusive,  and  intolerant  spirit, 
which  could  unfortunately  allege  so  much  war- 
rant for  itself  from  the  law  and  the  prophets. 
Therein  the  author  had  many  and  noble  succes- 
sors, not  only  among  the  sages,  with  their  cos- 
mopolitan wisdom,  but  in  the  circles  of  the  law. 

It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  author  that  modern 
readers  and  interpreters  have  had  their  atten- 
tion diverted  from  the  moral  of  the  book  to  the 
fable  in  which  it  is  conveyed;  he  could  not  have 
imagined  the  pseudo-historical  frame  of  mind 
to  which  the  question  whether  it  all  happened 
thus  and  so  was  of  such  absorbing  importance 
that  it  might  almost  be  said  that  the  sea-monster 
swallowed  the  commentators  as  well  as  the 
prophet.  For  one  of  the  difficulties  of  the  book 
he  is  not  responsible:  the  psalm  (Jonah  ii.  2-9) 
which  Jonah  sings  in  the  fish's  belly  was  put  in 
his  mouth  by  a  later  editor;  vs.  10  is  the  im- 
mediate sequel  of  vs.  1.  The  poem  was  evidently 
not  composed  for  the  place;  it  is  a  hymn  of 
thanksgiving,  not  a  prayer  for  deliverance;  but 
the  (figurative)  references  to  the  depths  of  the 
abyss  seemed  appropriate  to  Jonah's  situation. 


ESTHER,  RUTH,  JONAH  141 

The  hero  of  the  story  is  a  historical  character, 
of  whom,  to  be  sure,  we  know  only  that  he  came 
from  a  place  named  Gath-hepher,  and  predicted 
the  reconquest  of  lost  Israelite  territories  which 
Jeroboam  II  achieved  (2  Kgs.  xiv.  25).  It  has 
been  conjectured  that  the  author  of  our  book 
may  have  heard  in  some  way  that  he  went  on  a 
mission  to  Nineveh;  but  if  he  had,  that  would 
not  make  the  book  any  more  historical. 

Jonah,  like  Ruth  and  Esther,  belongs  to  the 
later  period  of  Hebrew  literature;  it  is  more 
likely  that  it  was  written  after  the  time  of 
Alexander  than  before,  but  greater  definiteness 
is  not  justified. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PROPHETS 

In  the  old  story  of  Saul  and  Samuel  (1  Sam. 
9  f.)  Samuel  is  named  "the  seer,"  that  is,  a  man 
endowed  with  what  we  call  second  sight,  and 
a  note  by  an  editor  explains  that  what  in  his 
time  was  called  a  prophet  used  to  be  called  a 
seer.  Samuel  was,  indeed,  in  the  apprehension 
of  later  times  a  prophet,  but  the  story  itself 
makes  a  clear  distinction  between  the  two.  The 
band  of  prophets  whom  Saul  meets  coming  down 
from  the  high  place,  working  up  by  music  an 
enthusiasm,  or  possession,  which  makes  them 
beside  themselves,  raving  in  the  prophetic  fury 
(raving  and  prophesying,  in  such  connections, 
is  the  same  word  in  Hebrew),  an  enthusiasm 
which  Saul  catches,  to  the  surprise  and  scandal  of 
his  townsmen,  are  evidently  something  quite 
different  from  the  village  seer;  they  must  have 
been  outwardly  very  much  like  modern  Moslem 
dervishes. 

In  the  ninth  century,  the  century  of  the  Syrian 
wars,  these  gregarious  prophets  appear  in  many 
places;  especially  in  the  stories  of  Elisha  they  are 
organized  societies  of  devotees,  living  by  them- 
selves in  colonies  of  huts  or  cells  under  a  supe- 
rior —  again  very  much  like  a  dervish  order  — 

142 


THE  PROPHETS  143 

and  sometimes  turning  their  religious  zeal  into 
political  channels,  as  when  they  incite  Jehu  to 
the  revolt  which  overthrew  the  house  of  Omri. 

Beside  them  are  others  who  also  bear  the 
name  prophet,  but  stand  apart  from  the  order, 
and  often  in  opposition  to  it.  Such  a  figure 
is  Micaiah  son  of  Imlah,  confronting  the  four 
hundred  prophets  whom  Ahab  got  together, 
and  declaring  their  unanimity  of  inspiration  to 
be  the  work  of  a  lying  spirit  sent  from  God  to 
lure  the  king  to  his  doom  (1  Kgs.  22).  Such  a 
figure,  above  all,  as  we  have  already  seen,  is 
Elijah,  who,  solitary,  champions  Jehovah's  right 
to  the  undivided  allegiance  of  Israel,  or  thunders 
the  doom  of  the  dynasty  at  the  authors  of  Na- 
both's  judicial  murder.  It  is  in  such  men  as 
these,  rather  than  in  the  common  herd  of 
prophets  by  profession,  that  the  ethical  proph- 
ets of  the  eighth  century  have  their  forerunners. 

The  moral  conception  of  God  had  its  roots 
far  down  in  the  religion  of  Israel,  as  may  be  seen 
in  the  older  (certainly  preprophetic)  strata  in 
Samuel,  and  better  still  in  the  patriarchal  legends, 
which  received  their  present  form  in  the  same 
age;  but  after  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom 
it  was  crossed  by  the  national  idea.  It  was  not 
till  the  eighth  century  that  the  men  came  who 
thought  through  what  the  moral  idea  of  God 
involves  and  had  the  courage  to  proclaim  its 
consequences,  fatal  though  they  might  be  to 
both  state  and  church.  These  prophets,  begin- 
ning with  Amos,  not  only  preached  a  new  doctrine, 
they  employed   a  new  method.     The  message 


144  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

which  they  spoke  to  the  heedless,  incredulous, 
or  hostile  ears  of  their  contemporaries,  they  also 
recorded,  whether  in  the  hope  to  reach  through 
the  written  page  a  larger  audience,  or  to  per- 
petuate their  words  to  generations  following. 
Thus  there  begins  a  prophetic  literature  which  is 
one  of  the  most  characteristic  features  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Four  prophets  of  the  second  half 
of  the  eighth  century  have  given  their  names 
to  such  prophetic  books,  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah, 
and  Micah.  Then,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventh  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixth, 
follow  the  little  books  of  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  and 
Habbakuk,  and  the  great  one  of  Jeremiah,  whose 
younger  contemporary  in  Babylonia  is  Ezekiel. 
Haggai  and  Zechariah  were  instrumental  in  the 
rebuilding  of  the  temple  in  the  reign  of  Da- 
rius I.  In  the  discussion  of  these  books  we  shall 
not  attempt  a  chronological  disposition,  but  fol- 
low the  order  of  the  English  Bible. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ISAIAH 

The  first  of  the  prophetic  books  bears  the 
name  of  Isaiah,  a  Judsean  prophet,  who  dates  his 
call  "in  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,"  a  year 
which  cannot  be  fixed  with  certainty,  but  was  at 
all  events  not  very  long  before  734  b.  c,  and 
whose  latest  dated  utterances  are  from  the  time 
of  Sennacherib's  invasion  in  the  year  701.  His 
prophecies  thus  range  over  a  period  of  not  far 
from  forty  years.  He  witnessed  the  humbling 
of  Israel  by  Tiglath-Pileser  in  734,  the  fall  of 
Samaria  in  721,  the  Assyrian  campaigns  in  the 
west  in  720  and  711,  and  the  condign  punish- 
ment Sennacherib  inflicted  on  Judah  in  701; 
and  all  these  events  (of  which  we  have  historical 
knowledge  from  both  Assyrian  and  Jewish 
sources)  are  reflected  in  his  prophecies. 

The  book  contains,  however,  much  besides 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  in  the  different  periods 
of  his  long  career.  It  has  already  been  noted 
that  Isa.  36-39  are  found  also,  with  some  varia- 
tions, in  2  Kgs.  18-20,  where  they  are  an  integral 
part  of  the  narrative.  That  this  extract  from 
Kings  was  copied  into  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  prophet  is  a  prom- 
inent figure  in  the  story.    It  does  not  stand  in 

145 


146  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

immediate  connection  with  the  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  during  the  campaign  of  Sennacherib  in 
CO.  28-33,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  several 
oracles  of  different  character  and  date;  and  the 
natural  presumption  is  that  this  historical  ap- 
pendix was  added  at  the  end  of  a  roll,  just  as 
Jer.  52,  also  an  extract  from  Eangs  (2  Kgs.  xxiv. 
18-xxv.  21),  is  appended  at  the  end  of  the  roll 
of  Jeremiah. 

In  the  present  Book  of  Isaiah,  cc.  36-39  are 
followed  by  another  prophetic  book  of  consider- 
able length  (Isa.  40-66),  which  has  no  title,  and 
in  which,  from  first  to  last,  no  prophet's  name 
appears.  The  theme  which  is  announced  in  the 
first  verses  of  this  book  and  runs  through  a  large 
part  of  it  is  the  approaching  deliverance  of  the 
Jews  from  the  Babylonian  captivity,  their  return 
to  their  own  land,  and  the  restoration  of  Zion. 

In  Isa.  1-35  certain  larger  divisions  are  at 
once  apparent:  cc.  1-12,  a  collection  of  prophe- 
cies, chiefly,  as  appears  from  dates  and  other 
indications,  from  the  earlier  years  of  Isaiah's 
ministry;  cc.  13-23,  a  collection  of  oracles, 
mainly  against  foreign  nations;  cc.  24-27,  pre- 
visions of  a  great  judgment,  in  a  peculiarly 
mysterious  tone;  cc.  28-33,  chiefly  from  the 
time  of  Sennacherib,  followed  by  c.  34,  in  which 
God's  fury  is  poured  out  on  Edom,  and  c.  35,  a 
prophecy  of  restoration  akin  to  cc.  40  ff.  It  is 
thus  evident  that  the  present  book  is  made 
up  from  several  older  collections  of  prophecies 
gathered  by  different  hands;  the  peculiar  titles 
in  cc.  13-23,  for  instance,  are  most  probably  to  be 


ISAIAH  147 

attributed  to  the  editor  of  an  independent  book 
of  prophecies  against  the  heathen. 

The  same  phenomenon  appears  on  a  smaller 
scale  in  Isa.  1-12.  That  these  chapters,  at  one 
stage  in  the  history  of  the  collections,  formed  a 
roll  by  themselves  is  probable  from  the  fact  that 
they  begin  with  a  grand  overture  (c.  1),  in  which 
the  leading  motives  of  Isaiah's  prophecy  are 
heard,  and  close  (c.  12)  with  a  psalm  of  praise 
for  the  messianic  deliverance  which  is  the  sub- 
ject of  c.  11.  But  the  order  of  the  prophecies 
is  not  chronological:  the  inaugural  vision  and 
Isaiah's  call  to  be  a  prophet  stands,  not  at  the 
beginning,  as  in  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  but  in 
c.  6  (dated  in  the  year  of  King  Uzziah's  death), 
while  the  chapters  that  precede  it  (cc.  2  f.;  5), 
with  what  was  once  an  initial  title  (ii.  1),  may 
confidently  be  assigned,  on  internal  grounds,  to 
the  reigns  of  Uzziah's  successors.  Chapters  7 
and  8  (dated  under  Ahaz)  seem  to  have  originally 
followed  close  on  c.  6,  as  they  do  now.  Whatever 
may  be  the  reason  for  this  singular  arrangement, 
it  seems  evident  that  the  compiler  had  several 
smaller  groups  or  loose  leaves  of  oracles,  which 
he  put  together  for  better  preservation,  rather, 
perhaps,  by  affinity  of  subject  than  in  order  of 
time. 

This  must  have  taken  place  at  a  compara- 
tively late  time,  for  not  only  does  his  roll  begin 
with  a  prophecy  (Isa.  i.  2-9)  which  vividly  de- 
picts the  devastation  of  Judah  and  the  isolation 
of  Jerusalem  by  Sennacherib  in  701  (perhaps  the 
latest  oracle  of  Isaiah  preserved  in  the  book), 


148  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

but  it  contains  passages  (e.  g.  xi.  11-16)  which 
bear  all  the  marks  of  a  time  several  centuries 
after  Isaiah's  death;  the  psalm  in  c.  12  is  perhaps 
later  still.  Another  indication  that  the  collection 
was  made  at  a  date  remote  from  the  age  of  the 
prophet  is  the  fragmentary  character  of  several 
of  the  oracles  in  cc.  2-5.  The  refrain  verses  here 
afford  a  certain  clue;  they  show  that  prophecies 
originally  composed  with  much  art  in  balanced 
strophes  with  closing  refrains  came  into  the  com- 
piler's hands  mutilated  and  dislocated.  Thus, 
V.  25  has  the  refrain  of  ix.  8-21 ;  x.  4,  while  x.  1-3 
is  a  "woe"  which  has  strayed  away  from  v.  18  ff., 
and  the  refrain  ii.  9,  11,  17  recurs  in  v.  15. 

Fragmentary  as  many  of  these  prophecies  are, 
enough  remains  to  show  that  Isaiah  had  poetical 
genius  as  well  as  unequaled  mastery  of  the  pecu- 
liar literary  form  of  the  Hebrew  oracle.  The  par- 
able of  the  vineyard  (Isa.  v.  1-7),  or  the  picture 
of  the  swift,  resistless  advance  of  the  Assyrian 
(v.  26-30),  or  the  description  of  devastated  Judah 
(i.  2-8),  or  the  oracle  against  Samaria  (ix.  8-21), 
in  the  Authorized  English  Version,  illustrate  in 
different  ways  the  art  with  which  Isaiah  handles 
this  traditional  form. 

The  earlier  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  whether 
directed  against  Israel  and  its  allies  or  against 
Judah,  are  unsparing  in  their  condemnation  of 
the  political  and  social  evils  of  the  time,  and  pre- 
dict the  imminent  and  irremediable  ruin  of  both 
nations.  This  is  revealed  to  Isaiah  in  the  vision 
which  made  him  a  prophet,  in  terms  so  drastic 
that  the  closing  words  were  piously   erased  by 


ISAIAH  149 

some  late  editor  (so  in  the  Greek  Bible),  and  a 
meaningless  phrase  put  in  their  place  in  the  cur- 
tailed sentence  by  a  still  later  hand  (our  Hebrew 
text).  With  this  the  tenor  of  his  utterances  in 
cc.  ii.  5-iii.  26;  v.  1-30;  ix.  8-x.  4,  wholly 
agrees.  These  unrelieved  forebodings  of  doom  led 
in  later  times  not  only  to  excisions  such  as  we 
have  noted  in  vi.  13,  but  to  interpolations;  hope- 
ful pendants  were  attached  to  the  prophet's 
gloomy  pictures,  sometimes  written  for  the  pur- 
pose —  a  particularly  instructive  example  is  iv. 
2-6,  after  iii.  16-iv.  1  —  sometimes  borrowed 
from  other  prophetic  contexts.  To  the  latter 
class  belongs  the  famous  messianic  oracle,  ix.  1-7, 
which  is  very  imperfectly  connected  (by  changes 
in  viii.  22)  with  the  preceding  climactic  denun- 
ciation of  doom,  the  end  of  which  is  missing. 
If  Isa.  ix.  1-7  is  a  prophecy  by  Isaiah,  it  can  only 
belong  to  his  latest  years. 

One  other  feature  of  Isaiah's  message  must  be 
signalized.  His  God  indignantly  rejects  the  sac- 
rifices and  all  the  pompous  worship  which  are 
offered  him  in  his  temple  in  Jerusalem  (Isa.  i.  10- 
17).  Men  think  they  can  thus  gain  the  favor  of 
God  and  persuade  him  to  overlook  or  condone 
their  sins  against  their  fellows!  Such  worship  is 
an  insult  to  God.  So  Amos  a  few  years  before 
had  condemned  the  worship  at  Bethel  (Amos  v. 
21-25).  So  their  successors  repeat  in  no  uncer- 
tain terms  (see  Mic.  vi.  6-8;  Jer.  7,  especially 
vss.  21-23).  It  is  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
prophecy:  the  will  of  God  is  wholly  moral.  For 
worship  he  cares  nothing  at  all;  for  justice,  fair- 


150  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ness,  and  goodness  between  man  and  man  he 
cares  everything.  Such  a  God  is  capable  of  de- 
stroying the  nation  for  the  wrongs  men  do  their 
fellow  man;  he  is  not  capable  of  being  bribed  by 
offerings,  or  flattered  with  psalms,  or  wheedled 
with  prayers.  He  will  listen  to  no  intercession 
(Jer.  XV.  1  ff .,  after  c.  14) ;  nothing  but  complete 
reformation  and  reparation  will  he  call  repentance 
—  and  there  comes  a  pass  where  repentance  is 
impossible. 

The  book  of  prophecies  against  the  heathen 
(Isa.  13-23)  begins  with  two  remarkable  chapters 
(xiii.  1-xiv.  23)  declaring  the  imminent  destruc- 
tion of  Babylon  by  the  Medes,  whom  the  prophet 
sees  already  in  motion  against  the  doomed  city, 
and  exulting  over  the  descent  of  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon to  hell,  greeted  by  the  taunts  of  the  mighty  of 
the  earth  who  were  before  him  there.  The  two 
prophecies  are  connected  by  a  prediction  of  the 
deliverance  of  captive  Israel,  which  will  be  re- 
stored to  its  own  land  and  rule  over  its  oppressors 
(xiv.  1-4*).  The  situation  is  not  that  of  Isaiah's 
time,  in  which  Babylon  was  a  province  of  the 
Assyrian  empire,  and  when,  under  Merodach 
Baladan,  it  for  a  while  reasserted  its  independence, 
seems  to  have  sought  an  alliance  with  Hezekiah 
against  their  common  oppressor,  Assyria  (Isa. 
39  =  2  Kgs.  XX.  12  ff.).  The  Medes  had  been 
in  league  with  the  Babylonians  against  Assyria 
until  its  fall  in  606  b.  c;  it  was  not  until  the  time 
of  Cyrus  that  the  Medes  became  a  menace  to 
Babylonia,  and  only  after  Cyrus's  conquest  of 
Lydia  (546  b.  c.)  that  the  turn  of  Babylon  was 


ISAIAH  151 

visibly  come.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sack  and 
ruin  of  Babylon,  pictured  with  vengeful  satisfac- 
tion in  Isa.  13,  did  not  come  to  pass  at  that  time. 
The  Persian  armies,  after  a  decisive  battle  in 
northern  Babylonia,  entered  the  city  in  the  Au- 
tumn of  538  without  resistance.  Babylonian 
inscriptions  acclaim  Cyrus  as  a  deliverer,  and 
Babylon  became  one  of  the  capitals  of  his  great 
empire.  On  these  grounds  the  prophecy  is  gener- 
ally thought  to  fall  between  546  and  538  b.  c. 

It  is  immediately  followed  by  a  short  oracle 
(Isa.  xiv.  24-27)  against  the  Assyrians,  quite  in 
the  tone  of  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  in  the  time  of 
Sennacherib  (701  b.  c),  and  by  an  enigmatical 
warning  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Philistine 
cities,  said  in  the  title  to  have  come  "in  the  year 
that  Kjng  Ahaz  died."  Another  prophecy  con- 
cerned with  the  inhabitants  of  these  cities,  bear- 
ing Isaiah's  name  and  definitely  dated  (711  b.  c), 
is  Isa.  20.  Chapter  17,  entitled  "The  Burden  of 
Damascus,"  is  in  fact  chiefly  against  the  kingdom 
of  Israel,  and  falls  in  line  with  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
in  the  time  of  the  alliance  of  the  two  kingdoms 
against  Judah  (ca.  736  b.  c);  compare  Isa.  7. 
In  Isa.  xxii.  15-25  is  a  prophecy  of  Isaiah  singular 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  launched  at  an  individual,  the 
majordomo  of  King  Hezekiah. 

Besides  these,  the  collection  contains  oracles 
against  Moab  (Isa.  15  f.).  Nubia  (c.  18),  Egypt 
(c.  19),  another  vision  of  the  fall  of  Babylon  be- 
fore the  armies  of  Elam  and  Media  (xxi.  1-10), 
but  in  a  different  spirit  from  cc.  13-14,  the  Arabs 
(xxi.  11  f.,  13-17),  Tyre  (c.  23),  and  one  with  the 


152  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

mysterious  (editorial)  title  "Burden  of  the  Valley 
of  Vision"  (xxii.  1-14).  The  last-named,  in  the 
form  of  a  vision,  depicts  a  crisis  in  the  history  of 
Jerusalem,  and  condemns  the  frivolous  behavior 
of  its  inhabitants  on  the  eve  of  a  siege  or,  as  some 
think,  during  the  respite  given  by  a  temporary 
raising  of  a  siege.  It  was  probably  uttered  by  Isa- 
iah at  an  early  stage  in  Hezekiah's  revolt  against 
Sennacherib  (704  or  703  b.  c),  before  the  actual 
appearance  of  the  Assyrian  army.  The  oracle 
against  Tyre  (Isa.  xxiii.  1-14  —  what  follows  is  a 
later  supplement)  seems  more  appropriate  to  the 
thirteen  years'  siege  by  Nebuchadnezzar  than  to 
the  operations  of  Shalmanezer  or  of  Sennacherib 
in  Isaiah's  days. 

Thus  Isa.  13-23,  like  cc.  1-12,  contains  proph- 
ecies of  Isaiah  from  both  the  earliest  and  the  latest 
period  of  his  activity,  intermingled  with  others 
having  a  totally  different  historical  horizon  and 
dating  from  a  much  later  time,  and  to  both  addi- 
tions have  been  made  by  editors  or  scribes.  A 
very  interesting  example  of  the  latter  phenom- 
enon is  Isa.  xix.  18  ff.  The  passage  is,  in  all 
probability,  from  the  time  of  the  Greek  kingdoms 
of  Egypt  and  Syria,  the  name  of  the  city  in  the 
Greek  Bible,  "City  of  Righteousness,"  referring 
to  Leontopolis,  where  a  Jewish  temple  was 
erected  about  170  b.  c,  with  high  priests  of  the 
legitimate  line  exiled  from  Jerusalem.  "City  of 
Destruction"  (heres)  in  the  Hebrew  text  is  a  hos- 
tile perversion,  possibly  by  way  of  another  read- 
ing "City  of  the  Sun"  (heres). 

Each  of  the  three  large  prophetic  books  has 


ISAIAH  153 

such  a  group  of  oracles  about  gentile  nations,  Isa. 
13-23;  Jer.  46-51;  Ezek.  25-32.  They  are  in 
part  leveled  at  the  immediate  neighbors  of  Judah, 
in  part  against  the  great  powers,  Babylon  and 
Egypt.  Many  of  them  are  in  such  general  terms 
—  or,  if  they  refer  to  specific  events  and  situa- 
tions, our  knowledge  of  the  history  is  so  incom- 
plete— that  it  is  peculiarly  difficult  to  fix  their  age. 
It  was  also  a  kind  of  prophecy  which  peculiarly 
invited  imitation.  Under  the  foreign  yoke  the 
Jews  wore  for  so  many  centuries,  it  must  often 
have  been  a  relief  of  soul  to  repeat  what  God  was 
going  to  do  to  the  heathen;  the  spirit  of  the  au- 
thor of  Jonah  was  not  for  everybody.  Moreover, 
if  there  is  any  place  in  the  Old  Testament  where 
it  would  be  easier  than  another  for  oracles  of  the 
"false  prophets"  to  slip  in  and  be  preserved,  it  is 
in  these  collections;  about  the  doom  of  the  ene- 
mies of  Israel  they  were  as  orthodox  and  as  em- 
phatic as  the  best.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore, 
that  there  should  be  more  than  usual  uncertainty 
about  the  origin  of  these  anathemas  on  the 
gentiles. 

Isaiah  24-27  contains  a  series  of  prophecies  of 
judgment  to  come  which  differ  from  others  in  the 
book  in  having  no  particular  address.  The  vision 
seems  to  widen  to  a  judgment  of  the  world,  in 
which  the  earth  itself  reels  and  sinks  under  the 
weight  of  men's  sin,  and  the  celestial  powers  (the 
heavenly  bodies,  which  are  the  tutelary  deities  of 
the  heathen)  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  are  cast 
into  the  pit  and  shut  up  in  prison,  while  the  Lord 
of  Hosts  reigns  gloriously  in  Zion.     In  another 


154  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

passage  God,  with  his  great  sword,  punishes  the 
leviathan,  the  swift  and  winding  serpent,  and  slays 
the  great  dragon  in  the  sea.  The  mj^thological 
eschatology  of  Judaism  made  much  of  such  imag- 
ery, which  is  itself  doubtless  of  mythical  ancestry. 

The  diction  and  style  of  these  chapters  alone 
would  suflfice  to  acquit  Isaiah  of  responsibility  for 
them;  anything  more  unlike  his  writing  could  not 
be  imagined.  The  author,  whosoever  he  was,  riots 
in  plays  on  words,  many  of  them,  as  is  the  fate  of 
laborious  punsters,  forced  or  far-fetched.  As  to 
the  age  of  the  chapters,  aside  from  the  language, 
prophecy  is  here  plainly  making  the  transition  to 
apocalypse  with  those  visionary  revelations  of 
the  last  judgment  in  which  Jewish  invention  was 
so  fertile.  This  of  itself  points  to  a  late  time  in 
the  post-exilic  period.  The  historical  allusions 
which  have  been  scented  out  in  the  chapters  are 
too  uncertain  to  reckon  with;  only,  as  in  c.  19, 
the  way  in  which  Egypt  and  Assyria  (or  Syria)  are 
conjoined  seems  plainly  to  point  to  the  divisions 
of  Alexander's  empire. 

In  chapters  28-33  are  brought  together  a  num- 
ber of  oracles  of  Isaiah  from  the  years  of  Heze- 
kiah's  revolt  and  Sennacherib's  punitive  expedi- 
tion. These  oracles  are  generally  brief  and 
pointed;  they  agree  in  form  and  spirit  with  his 
prophecies  in  cc.  1-12  quite  as  closely  as  the  writ- 
ing of  an  aging  man  ordinarily  resembles  that  of 
his  youth.  In  xxviii.  1-4,  indeed,  an  early  proph- 
ecy against  Samaria,  is  made  to  serve  as  text  for 
a  counterpart  addressed  to  Jerusalem. 

Mingled  with  these  are  a  series  of  passages 


ISAIAH  155 

which  foretell  the  destruction  of  the  foe  and  the 
miraculous  escape  of  Judah  from  imminent  ruin, 
or,  taking  higher  flight,  picture  the  golden  age 
to  come.  To  the  former  class  belong,  for  example, 
XXX.  27-33;  xxxi.  4-9;  to  the  latter,  xxix.  18-24; 
XXX.  18-26;  xxxii.  1-8,  16-20;  while  c.  33  par- 
takes of  both  characters.  That  Isaiah  predicted 
the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  in  the  last  extremity 
is  reported  also  in  Kings,  and  need  not  be  ques- 
tioned (see  also  Isa.  x.  5-14;  xiv.  24-27).  Most 
of  the  prophecies  of  the  golden  age  are,  how- 
ever, alien  to  their  context,  and  the  unmediated 
transition  from  the  unsparing  predictions  of  judg- 
ment to  these  messianic  idyls  makes  them  suspi- 
cious. It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  the  prophet 
thus  took  the  sting  out  of  his  most  pungent  ora- 
cles, but  the  position  of  the  passages  in  question 
can  have  no  other  intention.  If,  then,  these  are 
utterances  of  Isaiah  at  all,  they  cannot  have  been 
spoken  in  their  present  connection.  Some  of  them, 
at  least,  are  much  more  Hkely  by  other  hands. 
This  is  true  most  evidently  of  c.  33,  which  was 
probably  once  the  end  of  this  little  book  of  proph- 
ecies from  the  time  of  Sennacherib  (Isa.  28-33). 

Isaiah  34  is  a  prophecy  against  all  the  nations, 
which  at  once  concentrates  itself  upon  Edom, 
and  is  remarkable  for  its  rancor,  in  which,  as  in 
other  respects,  it  resembles  cc.  13  f.  The  super- 
natural features  of  the  judgment  remind  us  also  of 
Isa.  27:  it  is  too  little  that  the  people  is  anni- 
hilated, its  very  land  is  turned  into  an  uninhabi- 
table waste,  and,  as  by  some  prodigious  volcanic 
convulsion,  its  dust  becomes  brimstone  and  its 


156  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

soil  burning  pitch.  This  is  the  Lord's  vengeance 
for  the  wrong  of  Zion.  The  cause  of  this  unusual 
passion  is  known  from  other  prophets  (see  Obad. 
vss.  10-12;  Ezek.  xxv.  12-14;  c.  35):  in  the  life 
and  death  struggle  against  Nebuchadnezzar,  the 
Edomites,  Judah's  next  neighbors  and  near  kin, 
had  been  on  the  side  of  the  Babylonians,  and  were 
the  chief  gainers  by  the  ruin  of  Judah,  occupy- 
ing permanently  the  whole  south  of  the  country 
to  a  line  north  of  Hebron,  making  good  in  this  way 
the  part  of  their  own  old  territory  which  had  been 
taken  by  the  Nabatseans.  The  injury  was  lasting 
and  the  hatred  durable,  but  the  flaming  passion 
of  Isa.  34  would  incline  us  to  think  that  it  was 
written  while  the  grief  was  still  fresh.  The  pen- 
dant to  this,  Isa.  35,  a  prophecy  of  the  return  of 
the  dispersion  and  restoration  of  Zion,  is  quite 
in  the  manner  of  Isa.  40  ff.,  and  not  improbably 
by  the  same  author. 

Of  Isa.  36-39  (2  Kgs.  18-20)  account  has  al- 
ready been  given  (see  above,  pp.  112  f.). 

There  remains  the  anonymous  prophetic  book, 
Isa.  40-66,  which  not  only  has  no  title,  but  in 
which  —  in  striking  contrast  to  the  frequency 
with  which  Isaiah's  name  occurs  in  the  earlier 
chapters  of  the  book  —  no  prophet's  name 
appears. 

It  begins  with  the  announcement  that  the 
Jews  have  now  been  sufficiently  punished  for 
their  sins;  their  guilt  has  been  expiated  by  suf- 
fering. The  hour  of  national  restoration  is  at 
hand.  God  has  already  called  the  deliverer,  who 
will  bring  low  the  pride  of  Babylon  and  set  free 


ISAIAH  157 

captive  Israel;  by  his  edict  Jerusalem  shall 
be  rebuilt  and  the  temple  restored.  The  Jews, 
not  only  from  Babylonia  but  from  the  wide  and 
distant  lands  of  their  dispersion,  shall  flock 
back  to  their  own  country,  the  cities  of  Judah 
shall  be  repeopled,  and  Zion  shall  be  too  strait 
for  its  inhabitants.  The  deliverer  is  Cyrus  (Isa. 
xliv.  28;  xlv.  1),  who  is  called  God's  friend,  his 
anointed  one  (messiah);  the  victories  he  has 
already  gained  have  been  won  in  the  might  of 
Jehovah,  who,  all  unknown  to  him,  girds  him  for 
the  battle,  and  will  go  before  him  to  new  conquests. 

The  prophet's  prediction  was  met  with  incre- 
dulity; the  power  of  Babylon  seemed  invincible, 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  nation  impossible. 
Impossible,  maybe,  to  men,  but  not  to  the  Al- 
mighty God,  the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
the  sovereign  ruler  of  the  nations!  As  surely 
as  the  words  of  former  prophets  have  come  true, 
so  signally  shall  these  foretellings  be  fulfilled. 
For  history  is  the  unfolding  of  God's  plan  from 
the  beginning,  which  he  reveals  by  chapters  to 
his  servants  the  prophets. 

That  this  prophecy  was  delivered  by  Isaiah 
of  Jerusalem,  a  century  before  the  fall  of  Judah 
and  a  century  and  a  half  before  the  time  of  Cyrus, 
would  never  have  entered  anybody's  head  had 
these  chapters  not  been  appended  to  a  roll  which 
bore  at  its  beginning  the  name  of  Isaiah  and 
contained  many  oracles  of  the  eighth-century 
prophet.  But  this  physical  fact,  which  may  be 
due  to  no  intention  more  profound  than  a  desire 
to    economize   writing    material,    cannot    count 


158  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

against  the  conclusive  internal  evidence;  back- 
ground and  foreground  in  Isa.  40  ff.  are  not 
merely  totally  different  from  those  of  the  proph- 
ecies of  Isaiah  and  his  contemporaries,  they 
are  alike  inconceivable  in  his  age.  Nor  is  the 
fact  that  the  Jews  in  New  Testament  times, 
including  the  New  Testament  writers,  quoted 
these  chapters  as  Isaiah  and  believed  him  the 
author  of  them,  prove  anything  except  that  such 
was  the  opinion  of  the  Jews  in  that  age. 

The  historical  situation  in  Isa.  40  ff.  would  of 
itself  be  conclusive  against  Isaiah's  authorship; 
but  it  is  not  the  only  proof  of  the  contrary.  The 
author  of  these  chapters  has  not  inappropriately 
been  called  the  theologian  among  the  prophets. 
His  idea  of  God  is  conspicuously  more  advanced 
than  that  of  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century; 
it  lies  in  the  same  line  with  the  monotheism  of 
Deuteronomy  and  Jeremiah,  but  lies  beyond  them. 
And  it  is  characteristic  that,  in  contrast  to  the 
older  prophets,  this  one  reasons  about  it.  He 
argues  the  omnipotence  of  God  in  history  from 
his  omnipotence  in  creation,  and  makes  large 
use  of  the  evidence  from  the  fulfillment  of  proph- 
ecy to  prove  that  Jehovah  is  the  only  God; 
he  can  predict  because  he  foreordains  and 
brings  to  pass.  With  him  begins  the  polemic, 
not  against  the  worship  of  heathen  gods,  but 
against  their  existence.  What  the  heathen  bow 
down  to  are  naught  but  helpless,  senseless  idols, 
the  work  of  their  own  hands.  He  is  fond  of  in- 
viting his  readers  to  an  image-maker's  shop  to 
see  how  a  god  is  made  (see,  e.  g.,  Isa.  xliv.  9-20). 


ISAIAH  159 

Such  are  the  impotent  gods  that  the  Babylonians 
expect  to  save  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the  crea- 
tor of  the  world! 

The  style  of  Isa.  40  ff.  is  not  less  decisive. 
Translation  necessarily  in  large  measure  effaces 
the  differences,  but  even  in  translation  a  com- 
parison of  two  passages  on  similar  themes  such 
as  Isa.  X.  5-19  and  Isa.  47  may  perhaps  give 
some  impression  of  them.  The  style  of  Isaiah 
and  his  contemporaries  —  Amos,  Hosea,  Micah 
—  is  concise  and  pregnant,  the  sentences  are  short 
and  have  often  an  oracular  ring.  The  author 
of  Isa.  40  ff.  writes  with  a  freer  pen  in  flowing 
periods;  he  develops  his  thought  and  his  figures 
more  at  large;  if  he  is  obscure,  it  is  seldom  from 
compression.  Here  again,  Deuteronomy  and 
Jeremiah,  the  whole  literature  of  the  seventh 
century,  is  an  intermediate  stage.  The  later 
author  is  a  poet,  as  Isaiah  is,  but  with  other 
themes  and  in  other  forms;  compare,  e.  g., 
Isa.  5  with  Isa.  xlii.  1-9.  In  short,  each  has  a 
highly  characteristic  style,  and  the  two  are 
totally  different. 

The  historical  situation,  as  it  has  been  defined 
above,  appears  most  distinctly  in  Isa.  40-55. 
In  the  following  chapters  two  passages  were 
long  ago  seen  not  to  correspond  to  that  situation, 
viz.  Ivi.  9-lvii.  13  and  c.  65  (especially  vss.  1-16),  in 
which  the  vehement  attack  on  idolatrous  and 
abominable  rites  practiced  by  Jews  under  the 
prophet's  eyes  was  thought  to  indicate  a  pre- 
exilic  origin.  It  was  a  serious  error,  however,  to 
conceive  that  the  so-called  exile  cured  all  the 


160  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Jews  once  and  for  all  of  every  inclination  to 
heathenism;  the  history  of  the  Seleucid  period 
sufficiently  proves  the  contrary.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  chapters  inconsistent  with  the  view,  now 
generally  entertained,  that  these  flaming  denun- 
ciations were  delivered  in  Palestine  in  the  Per- 
sian or  the  Greek  period;  and  there  is  no  war- 
rant for  assuming  that  they  were  specifically 
addressed  to  the  half-heathen  population  of 
the  old  territory  of  Israel,  still  less  to  the  so- 
called  Samaritan  sect,  that  is,  the  worshipers 
at  the  rival  temple  on  Gerizim. 

Other  chapters  (Isa.  Ivii.  14-21;  60;  61  f.) 
resemble  in  spirit  and  manner  the  prophecies  in 
Isa.  40-55,  but  are  more  probably  by  later 
writers  under  the  influence  of  those  prophecies 
than  by  their  author.  Their  optimism  contrasts 
with  the  depressed  tone  of  Iviii.  1-lix.  15^,  in 
which  the  sense  of  sin  is  borne  in  on  the  com- 
munity by  the  delay  in  the  coming  of  the  good 
times.  In  lix.  15^-21,  and  Ixiii.  1-6  God's  fury 
is  poured  out  on  foreign  nations,  in  the  latter 
specifically  on  Edom;  Ixiii.  7-lxiv.  12  is  a  cry 
for  God's  intervention  in  dire  distress  (see  Ixiii. 
18;  Ixiv.  10  f.,  devastation  of  Judah,  burning  of 
the  temple);  c.  Q6  contains  diverse  elements, 
consolation  to  Jerusalem  of  the  school  of  Isa. 
40-55,  and  censures  of  abominable  rites  (Ixvi. 
3f.,  17ff.). 

Isaiah  56-66  is,  therefore,  generally  regarded  as 
an  appendix  to  the  book  of  consolation,  cc.  40- 
55,  containing  very  diverse  elements. 

It  would  be  nothing  strange  if  alien  prophecies 


ISAIAH  161 

and  editorial  expansions  were  found  in  Isa.  40- 
55  also,  and  displacements  are  probably  in  more 
than  one  passage.  The  question  of  authorship 
is  of  peculiar  interest  in  the  case  of  three  proph- 
ecies which  have  for  their  subject  the  mission 
and  sufl^ering  of  the  "Servant  of  Jehovah,'* 
Isa.  xlii.  1-9;  xlix.  1-13;  lii.  13-liii.  12,  which 
are  thought  by  some  to  be  taken  wholly  or  in 
part  from  an  older  prophet,  by  others  to  be  later 
insertions.  The  reasons  for  ascribing  the  "Ser- 
vant" passages  to  a  different  author  do  not  seem 
decisive. 

The  Book  of  Isaiah  is  thus  a  great  collection 
of  prophecies  of  various  ages,  from  the  middle 
of  the  eighth  century  b.  c.  down  perhaps  to  the 
third,  with  some  minor  additions  of  even  later 
date. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

JEREMIAH 

Jeremiah  dates  his  call  to  the  arduous  mis- 
sion of  prophet  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  King 
Josiah  (626  b.  c),  and  he  lived  till  after  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem  in  586  b.  c,  so  that,  like  his  pred* 
ecessor  Isaiah  a  century  earlier,  his  career  spans 
a  period  of  about  forty  years  in  a  time  of  great 
events.  Only  five  years  after  he  began  to  proph- 
esy, Josiah  reformed  religion  in  Judah  on  the 
new  model  of  the  law-book  discovered  by  Hilkiah 
(Deuteronomy;  see  above,  pp.  61  f.).  Jeremiah, 
scion  of  a  priestly  family  native  in  Anathoth,  a 
few  miles  north  of  Jerusalem,  which  very  likely 
traced  its  descent  from  Abiathar,  David's  priest, 
whom  Solomon  deposed  in  favor  of  Zadok,  was 
therefore  one  of  those  priests  of  the  high  places 
who  were  hit  hardest  by  the  suppression  of 
the  local  sanctuaries.  That  his  townsmen  of 
Anathoth  sought  his  life  (Jer.  xi.  18  ff.)  has 
been  attributed  to  their  indignation  that  Jere- 
miah should  dare  to  preach  Josiah's  "covenant" 
to  them  (see  Jer.  xi.  1-17).  Whatever  hopes 
he  may  have  entertained  at  first,  Jeremiah  was 
not  long  in  seeing  that  the  reform  had  cleaned 
only  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter, 
while  men  fortified  their  consciences  behind  the 

162 


JEREMIAH  163 

"covenant"  against  an  investigation  of  the 
inside.  In  608  b.  c.  Josiah  fell  in  battle  at  Me- 
giddo  against  the  Egyptian  king  Necho.  After 
a  brief  vassalage  to  Egypt,  Judah  came  under 
the  Babylonian  yoke.  Jeremiah  saw  all  this; 
saw,  too,  Jerusalem  twice  taken  by  the  armies  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  (597,  586  b.  c),  the  temple 
burned  and  the  walls  razed;  and  was  at  last 
forced  to  accompany  the  refugees  to  Egypt  after 
the  murder  of  Gedaliah. 

Early  in  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim,  Jeremiah 
delivered  himself  of  a  fulminant  oracle  in  the 
gate  of  the  temple  (Jer.  vii.  1-15,  cf.  c.  26),  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  Jews'  faith  in  the 
temple  as  the  palladium  of  the  city  was  a  delu- 
sion; unless  they  altogether  amended  their 
ways,  God  would  make  the  temple  a  ruin  like 
the  ancient  sanctuary  at  Shiloh.  Priests,  proph- 
ets, and  people  clamored  with  one  voice  for 
the  blasphemer's  death,  but  he  hurled  back  at 
them  a  reiteration  of  his  warning.  The  inter- 
vention of  some  of  the  magnates  saved  his  life; 
but  another  prophet  who  lacked  such  influential 
protection  was  extradited  from  Egypt  and  put 
to  death. 

Under  these  circumstances  Jeremiah  took  an- 
other way  of  reaching  the  public  (see  Jer.  36). 
He  dictated  to  Baruch  the  prophecies  which  he 
had  uttered  from  the  beginning  of  his  mission 
to  that  time,  and  sent  Baruch  to  read  the  roll 
in  the  temple  at  the  fast  in  the  ninth  month  in 
the  fifth  year  of  Jehoiakim  (603  b.  c).  Some 
of  the  nobles  had  Baruch  give  them  a  private 


164  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

reading,  and  then  carried  the  book  to  the  king, 
first  giving  Baruch  the  friendly  advice  to  put 
himself  and  Jeremiah  out  of  harm's  way.  The 
king,  as  he  read  the  roll,  cut  off  the  pages,  and 
burned  them  on  the  brazier  in  his  chamber. 
Jeremiah  thereupon  dictated  to  the  faithful 
Baruch  another  roll  containing  all  the  prophecies 
that  were  in  the  first,  "and  there  were  added 
besides  unto  them  many  like  words."  We  may 
be  sure  that  the  second  edition  would  have  been 
even  less  agreeable  reading  to  Jehoiakim  than 
the  first.  One  of  the  additional  words  is  indeed 
preserved  in  Jer.  xxxvi.  29-31.  The  chapter  is 
of  peculiar  interest,  because  it  is  an  account  — 
the  only  one  in  the  Old  Testament  —  of  the  origin 
of  a  prophetic  book.  We  see  the  prophet  repro- 
ducing, doubtless  from  memory,  the  content 
of  oracles  uttered  in  the  course  of  the  preceding 
twenty  years  or  more,  and  enlarging  the  collec- 
tion for  a  second  edition.  It  is  a  fair  conjecture 
that  this  second  roll  furnished  to  our  Book  of 
Jeremiah  most,  if  not  all,  the  prophecies  prior  to 
the  fifth  year  of  Jehoiakim;  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  roll  itself  is  not  incorporated  as  such  in 
the  present  book.  There  are  also  several  proph- 
ecies from  later  years  of  Jehoiakim,  and  many 
from  the  reign  of  the  last  king,  Zedekiah, 
especially  from  the  time  of  his  revolt  and  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Babylonians. 

A  distinctive  feature  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah 
is  the  presence  of  passages  of  considerable  extent 
derived  from  a  biographical  source.  From  this 
comes  the  account  of  the  making  and  reading 


JEREMIAH  165 

of  the  collected  volume  of  prophecies  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  years  of  Jehoiakim  of  which 
we  have  already  spoken  (Jer.  36),  and  particularly 
the  narrative  of  Jeremiah's  fortunes  during  the 
last  siege  of  Jerusalem  and  afterward,  including 
the  flight  to  Egypt  and  his  experiences  with  the 
refugees  there,  covering  thus  three  or  four  years 
beginning  with  588  (Jer.  37-44).  To  the  same 
source  it  is  natural  to  ascribe  c.  26,  relating  to  the 
circumstances  and  consequences  of  the  prophecy 
delivered  in  the  temple  at  the  beginning  of 
Jehoiakim's  reign  (c.  7);  c.  28  (collision  with 
the  "false  prophet"  Hananiah,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah);  c.  29  (letter  to  the 
Jews  in  Babylonia,  about  the  same  time);  and 
parts  of  cc.  32,  34,  and  35. 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  author 
of  this  biography  was  Baruch,  who  not  only 
stood  in  intimate  relations  with  Jeremiah  before 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  but  accompanied  him  to 
Egypt  (Jer.  xliii.  6).  It  is  consequently  a  his- 
torical source  of  the  best  possible  kind.  For  the 
first  half  of  Jeremiah's  career  this  source  fails 
us;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  continuous  only 
from  the  last  years  of  Zedekiah.  It  is  possible 
that  Baruch's  association  with  Jeremiah  began 
in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim,  and  his  narrative  may 
have  commenced  there. 

Unfortunately  this  life  of  Jeremiah  has  not 
been  preserved  complete  or  intact.  The  proph- 
ecies contained  in  it  led  later  compilers  to 
introduce  other  oracles  which  seemed  appro- 
priate to  the  context,  and  to  supplement  the 


166  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

words  of  Jeremiah  by  edifying  compositions  of 
their  own.  Their  aim,  it  must  constantly  be 
borne  in  mind,  was  not  to  produce  a  critical 
edition  of  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah,  but  to 
make  a  book  effective  to  impress  the  truths  and 
motives  of  religion  on  their  own  contemporaries, 
and  with  changing  times  and  situations  to  keep 
the  book,  so  to  speak,  up  to  date.  If  the  words 
of  an  old  prophet  suggested  to  them  a  good 
moral,  they  wrote  it  out  for  him,  without  dream- 
ing that  they  were  doing  either  him  or  morality 
a  wrong,  or  thinking  how  much  trouble  they 
were  making  for  future  historical  students.  It 
is  exactly  the  same  procedure  and  the  same 
motive  which  meets  us  in  innumerable  places 
in  the  Pentateuch  and  Historical  Books.  To 
stigmatize  such  interpolations  as  literary  fraud 
is  absurd. 

These  additions  are  often  recognizable  by 
their  prosaic  preachiness  or  by  their  composite 
imitativeness.  By  their  nature  they  invited 
others,  enlarging  or  improving  on  them.  How 
long  and  largely  this  growth  went  on  will  be 
seen  when  we  come  to  consider  the  relation  of 
the  Greek  Jeremiah  to  the  Hebrew. 

Of  one  kind  of  prediction  the  Jews  of  later 
centuries  could  not  have  enough,  the  prophecies 
of  deliverance  from  the  foreign  yoke  and  the 
better  time  to  follow.  They  not  only  cherished 
the  hopeful  words  of  former  prophets  and 
wrote  variations  on  their  themes,  but  gave 
expression  to  their  faith  and  their  ideals  in  their 
own  way.    That  they  often  took  their  inspiration 


JEREMIAH  167 

from  Isa.  40  ff.  is  natural.  In  Jeremiah  such 
promises  of  a  happier  future  are  accumulated 
in  cc.  30-33,  which  contain,  with  some  oracles 
of  Jeremiah,  pieces  of  various  authorship  and 
age,  some  of  them  such  pendants  to  gloomy- 
pictures  as  we  have  found  numerous  in  Isaiah 
(e.  g.  Jer.  xxx.  1  ff.  to  vss.  12-15),  others  more 
independent  compositions. 

These  stand  interspersed  among  the  extracts 
from  Baruch's  life  of  Jeremiah.  In  the  first  half 
of  the  book  (Jer.  1-25)  there  is  no  such  history 
for  a  framework.  It  will  be  observed  here  that 
the  prophet  commonly  introduces  his  message  in 
personal  form,  "The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to 
me,  saying,"  or  "Then  Jehovah  said  to  me,"  or 
the  like.  Sometimes  an  oracle  begins,  as  in  c.  18, 
"The  words  which  came  to  Jeremiah,"  as  a  kind 
of  title,  while  in  the  sequel  the  prophet  speaks  in 
the  first  person.  Dates  are  infrequent  in  this  part 
of  the  book,  and  if  a  chronological  order  was  ob- 
served in  Baruch's  roll,  it  has  been  broken  up  in 
the  present  arrangement.  Internal  evidence  does 
not  always  suffice  to  fix  the  age  of  the  utter- 
ances, the  less  because  some  of  the  early  oracles 
have  obviously  been  adapted  to  a  later  situation. 
This  is  peculiarly  evident  in  cc.  1-6.  In  these 
chapters  are  several  prophecies  from  the  years 
when  the  wild  horsemen  from  the  Scythian  steppes 
were  overrunning  western  Asia  and  striking  terror 
into  the  stoutest  hearts  by  their  barbarous  ap- 
pearance and  fierce  manners.  Jeremiah  saw  in 
them  the  scourge  of  God  (see  e.  g.  Jer.  iv.  5-8,  27- 
31),  the  day  of  doom  was  come!    It  was,  indeed. 


168  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

such  a  vision  of  doom  that  first  met  his  gaze, 
when  God  made  him  a  prophet  (Jer.  i.  13  ff.). 
But  in  the  present  shape  of  these  chapters  the 
enemy  out  of  the  north  which  menaces  ruin  is 
not  the  wild  Scythian  hordes,  but  the  serried 
armies  of  Babylon.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable 
that  this  change  of  horizon  was  made  by  Jere- 
miah himself,  when  at  the  beginning  of  Jehoiakim's 
reign  the  Scythian  flood  had  run  off,  and,  by  the 
overthrow  of  Nineveh  and  Nebuchadnezzar's  de- 
feat of  Pharaoh  Necho  on  the  Euphrates,  the  new 
Babylonian  empire  had  become  the  impending 
fate  of  Syria  and  Palestine. 

Among  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  in  this  part 
of  the  book  also  are  introduced  pieces,  larger  or 
smaller,  which  are  the  product  of  later  genera- 
tions; two  conspicuous  examples  are  Jer.  ix. 
23-24;  X.  1-16  (x.  17  is  the  immediate  continua- 
tion of  ix.  22),  and  xvii.  19-27. 

Jeremiah's  experience  in  the  pursuit  of  his  call- 
ing was  a  hard  one.  His  Cassandra  forebodings 
gained  him  the  enmity  of  all,  and  hostility  grew 
to  bitter  hatred  as  the  dire  fulfillment  stared 
them  in  the  face.  His  countrymen  in  Anathoth 
plotted  his  death;  the  prophecy  in  the  temple  all 
but  cost  him  his  life,  and  was  an  end,  for  the  time 
at  least,  of  public  appearances;  the  coming  of 
his  collected  oracles  into  Jehoiakim's  hands 
drove  him  and  the  scribe  into  hiding.  During 
the  last  siege,  he  first  was  kept  in  arrest  in  a 
private  house,  then  cast  into  an  empty  cistern, 
where  he  would  have  perished  but  for  the  friend- 
liness of  a  negro  eunuch;    then  confined  in  the 


JEREMIAH  169 

court  of  the  guard  till  the  taking  of  the  city; 
released  by  the  Babylonians,  his  counsel  to  the 
refugees  not  to  flee  to  Egypt  was  badly  received, 
and  he  was  constrained  to  accompany  them.  In 
Egypt,  again  denouncing  and  predicting  ill,  he 
disappears;  Jewish  legend  says,  killed  by  his 
exasperated  countrymen. 

But  these  outward  perils  and  pains  were  not 
all  he  had  to  bear  for  being  a  prophet.  In  an- 
guish of  soul  he  suffered  twice  the  tragedy  of 
his  people,  in  foresight  and  in  fact — suffered  as 
only  a  man  of  sensitive  spirit  and  unflinching 
will  can  suffer.  That  needs  no  commentary; 
but  there  is  another  element  we  do  not  so  easily 
conceive:  Jeremiah  believed  that  the  word 
of  God  he  had  to  utter  was  not  merely  a  predic- 
tion, but  the  effectual  cause  of  the  ruin  of  Judah 
(see  Jer.  i.  9  f.). 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  task  God  had  laid  on 
him  seemed  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  He  feels  him- 
self a  man  of  contention  to  the  whole  earth.  He 
remonstrates,  he  reproaches  God  for  having  mis- 
led him,  he  resolves  never  again  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord;  but  there  is  within  him  as  it 
were  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  his  bones,  he  cannot 
hold  in  (Jer.  xx.  7-18;  see  also  xv.  10  f.,  15-18; 
xii.  1-6).  These  "confessions,'*  as  they  have 
been  called,  are  of  the  greatest  interest;  they  are 
a  revelation  of  the  prophet's  soul  such  as  has  no 
counterpart  in  the  Old  Testament,  and,  with 
Baruch's  simple  story,  bring  him  as  a  man  nearer 
to  us  than  any  of  the  other  prophets. 

In  the  Hebrew  (and  therefore  in  the  English) 


170  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Bible,  the  last  chapters  of  the  book  (Jer.  46-51) 
contain  a  collection  of  prophecies  against  foreign 
nations,  to  which  is  appended  (c.  52)  an  extract 
from  the  Book  of  Kings  (2  Kgs.  xxiv.  18-xxv.  21), 
describing  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Baby- 
Ionian  army  in  586  b.  c.  In  the  Greek  Bible  the 
oracles  against  the  foreign  nations  come  in  be- 
tween Jer.  XXV.  13  and  vs.  15,  but  in  an  altogether 
different  order.  They  evidently  formed  a  little 
book  by  themselves,  which  in  one  recension  of  the 
Book  of  Jeremiah  were  appended  to  the  volume  of 
his  prophecies,  in  another  were  inserted  in  the 
middle  of  it  as  the  corresponding  collections  of 
foreign  oracles  are  placed  in  Ezek.  25-32  and  Isa. 
13-23.  The  question  of  the  original  place  and  dis- 
position of  these  prophecies  is  of  importance  only 
for  the  relation  of  the  two  forms  of  the  book  to 
each  other,  and  need  not  be  pursued  here. 

It  is  very  doubtful  whether  Jeremiah  had  any 
hand  whatever  in  these  chapters.  The  prolix 
prophecy  against  Babylon  (Jer.  50-51)  is  a  purely 
literary  exercise,  for  which  contributions  have 
been  levied  right  and  left,  and  was  written  at  a 
time  when  Babylon  had  long  ceased  to  be  of  his- 
torical importance.  Others  of  the  prophecies 
borrow  from  earlier  prophets  generously.  An 
examination,  by  the  aid  of  the  marginal  refer- 
ences in  the  Revised  Version  (Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge edition,  1898),  of  the  appropriations  and 
reminiscences  will  give  a  profitable  notion  of  this 
literary  imitation  of  prophecy. 

The  different  order  of  the  prophecies  is  not  the 
only,  nor  the  most  important,  difference  between 


JEREMIAH  171 

the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek  Jeremiah.  Besides 
a  great  number  of  variant  readings  of  the  ordinary 
kind,  the  oldest  Greek  version  is  much  shorter 
than  the  Hebrew;  it  has  been  reckoned  that  in  the 
neighborhood  of  2700  words  in  the  latter  have 
nothing  corresponding  to  them  in  the  translation. 
Some  part  of  this  may  be  due  to  abridgment  by 
the  translators,  to  which  the  repetitions  in  parts 
of  Jeremiah  —  chiefly  secondary  parts  —  invited; 
but  when  all  allowance  is  made  for  this,  it  re- 
mains that  the  Hebrew  copies  from  which  the 
translation  was  made  had  a  much  briefer  text 
than  the  Palestinian  Hebrew  in  our  hands,  and  it 
is  probable  that  the  greater  part  of  this  difference, 
which  is  chiefly  in  comparative  verbosity,  is  due 
to  padding  with  stock  phrases  and  turns  of  thought 
in  the  Palestinian  text.  In  some  instances  oracles 
or  tags  to  oracles  which  on  other  grounds  are  rec- 
ognized as  late  additions  to  our  text  had  not  got 
into  that  of  the  Greek  translators. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

EZEKIEL 

EzEKiEL  was  one  of  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  who 
was  carried  off  to  Babylonia  with  King  Jehoia- 
chin  in  the  deportation  of  597  b.  c.  Those  who 
were  thus  deported  were  the  upper  classes,  in- 
cluding, of  course,  the  royal  family  and  the  court 
and  the  aristocracy  of  the  priesthood,  and  skilled 
artisans,  particularly  the  smiths  (armorers). 
Having  thus  removed  the  natural  leaders  of  the 
rebellious  people,  Nebuchadnezzar  made  Zede- 
kiah,  an  uncle  of  Jehoiachin,  king  in  his  stead  and 
gave  Judah  another  trial.  The  eight  or  ten  thou- 
sand Jews  with  their  families  who  were  removed 
to  Babylonia  were  colonized  at  different  points; 
Ezekiel  repeatedly  mentions  the  river  Chebar, 
that  is,  probably,  the  grand  canal  in  the  vicinity 
of  Nippur.  The  patricians  in  exile  thought  very 
poorly  of  the  new  lords  who  had  stepped  into 
their  shoes  in  Jerusalem,  and  they  flattered  them- 
selves that  events  would  soon  take  such  a  turn 
that  they  would  return  to  Judaea  and  to  power. 
They  had  prophets  and  diviners  among  them  who 
encouraged  them  in  this  expectation.  When 
Zedekiah  revolted  and  the  Babylonian  armies  a 
second  time  besieged  Jerusalem,  their  faith  in 
the  inviolability  of  Zion,  confirmed,  rather  than 

172 


EZEKIEL  173 

shaken,  by  the  outcome  of  things  in  597  b.  c, 
when  Jehoiachin  surrendered  and  the  holy  city 
took  no  harm,  made  them  refuse  hearing  to 
Ezekiel's  prediction  of  ruin;  they  may  even  have 
dreamed  that  Nebuchadnezzar  would  find  out  his 
mistake  and  restore  to  Judah  its  legitimate  rulers, 
chastened  by  experience,  and  pack  Zedekiah  and 
his  advisers  into  exile  in  their  place. 

Against  this  vain  and  superstitious  optimism 
Ezekiel  had  to  contend  until  the  disastrous  issue 
made  a  rude  end  of  all  their  dreams  and  threw  the 
exiles  into  the  depths  of  hopelessness:  Bel  had 
triumphed  over  Jehovah,  and  it  was  all  over  with 
the  nation.  Thenceforth  Ezekiel's  task  was  to 
save  them  from  despair  by  the  assurance  that  God 
still  had  a  purpose  to  fulfill  with  them,  and  that, 
in  his  own  time,  when  they  had  been  thoroughly 
purged  from  their  old  sins  and  filled  with  a  new 
spirit,  he  would  restore  them  to  their  own  land  and 
bring  to  life  again  the  dead  nation. 

These  two  periods  of  the  prophet's  mission 
sharply  divide  the  Book  of  Ezekiel.  To  the  day 
when  the  word  came  to  him  that  the  Baby- 
lonian armies  had  invested  Jerusalem  (Ezek. 
24)  he  combats  delusion;  from  the  arrival  of  the 
tidings  of  the  fall  of  the  city  (xxxiii.  21  ff.)  he 
combats  despair.  The  first  part  is  all  menace,  the 
second  is  full  of  promise.  Numerous  dated  oracles 
serve  as  landmarks,  especially  in  the  first  part. 

Between  the  two,  in  the  two  years  of  suspense, 
when  about  his  own  people  the  prophet  is  dumb, 
is  placed  the  group  of  prophecies  against  foreign 
nations  (cc.  25-32),  beginning  with  oracles  against 


174  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  neighbors  of  Judah  who  held  true  to  Nebu- 
chadnezzar in  this  crisis  and  had  their  reward  at 
Judah's  cost  —  Ammonites,  Moabites,  Edomites, 
and  Philistines.  These  are  followed  by  long  pre- 
dictions of  the  ruin  of  Tyre,  over  whose  calamity 
the  prophet  exults  more  loudly  than  the  griev- 
ance of  Jerusalem  (Ezek.  xxvi.  2)  seems  to  jus- 
tify. Nebuchadnezzar  did  in  fact  besiege  Tyre 
for  thirteen  years  (585-572  B.  c),  and  doubtless 
inflicted  upon  it  great  losses;  but  the  island  city, 
with  its  command  of  the  sea,  he  could  not  take. 
Ezekiel  himself,  in  a  remarkable  passage  which  is 
perhaps  his  latest  word  in  the  book,  admits  that 
his  predictions  of  the  capture  of  Tyre  (xxvi. 
7-14)  had  not  been  fulfilled  —  Nebuchadnezzar 
had  had  to  raise  the  long  and  ineffectual  siege  — 
but  he  promises  that  Jehovah  will  reward  him 
for  these  fruitless  labors  in  the  Lord's  service  by 
giving  him  Egypt  instead  (xxix.  17-21).  The 
animosity  against  Egypt  which  finds  expression 
in  the  predictions  of  the  Babylonian  subjugation 
of  that  coimtry  is  more  easily  explained.  Egypt 
had  been  the  evil  genius  of  Judah,  instigating  re- 
bellion against  the  Babylonian  suzerainty,  and 
promising  armed  aid  which  always  failed  in  the 
decisive  hour;  it  was  meet  that  it  should  taste 
the  cup  of  humiliation  itself.  In  c.  32  the  descent 
of  Egypt  to  the  hell  of  fallen  nations  is  vividly 
depicted;  a  similar  picture  of  the  descent  of  the 
Babylonian  king  in  Isa.  14  has  already  been  noted. 
Not  improbably  Babylonian  notions  of  the  nether 
world  may  have  influenced  the  imagery  of  both, 
as  a  myth  of  paradise  seems  to  have  suggested  the 


EZEKIEL  175 

imagery  of  Tyre  in  Eden  (xxviii.  12  ff.)*  Outside 
this  group  is  an  oracle  against  Edom  (c.  35),  and 
the  great  prophecy  of  the  irruption  of  Gog  and 
his  hordes  and  their  fate  (cc.  38  f.). 

A  conspicuous  feature  of  the  Book  of  Ezekiel 
are  the  extended  visions  and  the  elaborated  sym- 
bolical actions.  In  the  inaugural  vision  (Ezek. 
i.-iii.  15),  for  instance,  God  appears,  a  veritable 
deus  ex  machina,  on  a  high  seat  in  a  curious  motor 
car  made  up  of  animated  wheels  and  winged  mon- 
sters. In  a  later  vision  (c.  10)  he  sees  God  leave 
the  doomed  temple  in  Jerusalem  and  mount  this 
cherubim  car,  in  which  he  is  whirled  away  through 
the  air  to  the  east;  and  in  the  great  vision  of  the 
new  temple  in  the  golden  age  God  returns  to  his 
abode  in  the  same  conveyance  (c.  43).  Striking 
examples  of  symbolical  actions  may  be  found  in 
Ezek.  4,  and  in  xii.  1-20.  They  are  of  such  an 
extraordinary  character  as  to  raise  the  question 
whether  they  were  really  enacted  before  the  eyes 
of  the  people  or  only  described  in  discourse. 

EzekieFs  visions  are  sometimes  ecstatic  states, 
in  which  he  is  instantaneously  translated  from 
place  to  place.  At  the  end  of  the  inaugural 
vision,  "the  spirit"  lifted  him  up  and  took  him 
away,  setting  him  down  in  amazement  among 
the  colonists  at  Tell-Abib.  In  viii.  1  ff.,  as  he 
sat  in  his  own  house  in  the  midst  of  a  company 
of  the  elders  of  Judah,  the  spirit,  which  is  de- 
scribed as  a  strange  luminous  creature,  took  him 
up  by  the  hair  of  his  head  and  wafted  him  "in 
the  visions  of  God"  to  Jerusalem,  where  his 
conductor  showed  him  all  the  idolatrous  cults 


176  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

and  the  abominable  mysteries  that  were  prac- 
ticed in  the  temple  under  the  very  eyes  of  "the 
glory  of  the  God  of  Israel"  (c.  8);  after  seeing 
God  take  his  flight  from  the  desecrated  sanctuary, 
the  prophet  is  translated  by  the  spirit  to  Chal- 
dsea  again.  Another  such  vision  in  ecstasy  is 
the  famous  scene  in  the  valley  of  dry  bones  (Ezek. 
37).  In  such  cases  it  is  impossible  to  say  how 
much  is  actually  the  experience  of  the  visionary, 
how  much  literary  form. 

In  the  great  vision  of  the  restoration,  cc.  40- 
48,  which  also  is  introduced  as  an  ecstasy  with 
the  translation  of  the  prophet  to  Palestine,  we 
may  be  pretty  sure  that  the  element  of  conscious 
composition  predominates.  The  chapters  con- 
tain a  programme  for  the  coming  age  when  all 
the  twelve  tribes,  gathered  together  from  exile 
and  dispersion,  shall  reoccupy  the  holy  land, 
with  a  new,  geometrical  division  of  the  territory, 
with  a  new  plan  for  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  a  new 
constitution  for  the  state,  a  new  temple  after  the 
old  model,  a  reorganized  ministry  of  religion, 
and  a  reformed  worship.  The  ruling  idea  which 
runs  through  all  is  to  make  impossible  those  sins 
against  the  holiness  of  God,  his  land,  his  house, 
his  people,  which  had  been  the  cause  of  former 
ruin. 

The  Book  of  Ezekiel  seems  to  have  been  ar- 
ranged and  published  by  the  author,  and  though 
some  derangements  and  repetitions  may  be 
observed,  it  has  not  been  much  meddled  with 
by  later  editors,  and,  to  whatever  reason  it  may 
be  attributed,  exhibits  none  of  the  phenomena 


EZEKIEL  177 

of  compilation  and  amplification  which  we  have 
found  in  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  The  Hebrew 
text,  however,  has  suffered  more  than  most 
books  in  transmission,  and  has  reached  us  in  an 
unusually  corrupt  state.  The  author  has  a 
style  of  his  own,  which  can  rise  to  eloquence 
(as  in  the  oracles  against  Tyre),  but  is  generally 
pedestrian  and  sometimes  clumsy.  He  has  plenty 
of  imagination,  not  always  regulated  by  taste 
or  restrained  by  decency.  His  drastic  figures 
of  the  unfaithfulness  of  Israel  and  Judah  are 
often  unfit  to  translate. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

DANIEL 

In  the  Hebrew  Bible  the  Book  of  Daniel 
stands,  not  as  in  our  Bible  among  the  Proph- 
ets, after  Ezekiel,  but  among  the  miscel- 
laneous books  in  the  third  division,  the 
"Scriptures."  Various  reasons  have  been  sug- 
gested for  this,  but  by  far  the  most  probable 
is  that  at  the  time  when  Daniel  became  cur- 
rent, in  the  second  century  b.  c,  the  Prophets 
were  already  a  definite  group  of  writings  with 
a  traditional  use  in  the  readings  of  the  Syn- 
agogue, to  which  a  new  book  could  not  well  be 
added. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  consists  of  two  parts, 
stories  about  Daniel  and  his  three  comrades 
(cc.  1-6),  and  visions  of  Daniel  (cc.  7-12);  in 
the  latter  Daniel  reports  his  visions  in  the  first 
person  as  Ezekiel  habitually  does,  and  it  was 
only  natural  that  he  should  be  taken  for  the 
author  of  the  book. 

According  to  the  introduction  to  the  first 
story,  Daniel  and  his  three  friends,  Hananiah, 
Mishael,  and  Azariah,  were  Jewish  youths  of 
high  birth  who  were  carried  captive  to  Babylon 
by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  first  deportation 
178 


DANIEL  179 

(which  is  erroneously  dated  in  the  third  year  of 
Jehoiakim).  One  story  (Dan.  1)  tells  how  these 
youths  contrived  to  avoid  all  danger  of  eating 
unclean  food,  and  how  God  blessed  them  in  body 
and  mind  for  their  scrupulousness  in  observance 
of  the  dietary  laws;  another  (c.  3),  how  the  three 
were  saved  from  Nebuchadnezzar's  overheated 
furnace,  into  which  they  were  thrown  for  refus- 
ing to  worship  the  idol;  a  third  (c.  6),  how 
Daniel  was  cast  into  the  lion's  den  for  pray- 
ing to  his  God  despite  the  edict  of  Darius.  These 
miraculous  deliverances  constrain  the  heathen 
kings  publicly  to  acknowledge  that  the  God  of 
the  Jews  is  the  greatest  of  gods.  The  same 
acknowledgment  is  drawn  from  Nebuchadnezzar 
when  Daniel  recalls  his  forgotten  dream  and 
interprets  it,  after  all  the  diviners  of  Babylon 
had  failed  (c.  2);  he  alone  is  able  to  decipher 
and  explain  for  Belshazzar  the  handwriting  on 
the  wall  (c.  5).  The  stories  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's madness  (c.  2)  and  of  Belshazzar's  feast 
(c.  5)  teach  also  how  God  punishes  kings 
who  in  their  pride  of  power  exalt  themselves 
before  him,  or  in  their  arrogance  profane  his 
holy  things. 

AH  of  them  thus  magnify  the  God  of  the  Jews 
as  in  power  and  wisdom  above  all  other  gods, 
and  two  of  the  most  striking  of  them  have  for 
their  theme  the  deliverance  from  mortal  peril 
of  men  who  stood  faithful  to  their  religion  against 
the  king's  commandment.  These  obvious  mo- 
tives, as  we  shall  presently  see,  have  a  bearing 
on  the  age  of  the  stories. 


180  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

In  the  second  part  of  the  book  are  four  visions, 
or  revelations,  which  stand  in  chronological 
order  (according  to  the  author's  chronology): 
c.  7  in  the  first  year  of  Belshazzar;  c.  8  in  his 
third  year;  c.  9  in  the  first  year  of  "Darius  son 
of  Xerxes,  of  the  race  of  the  Medes,"  —  not 
properly  a  vision,  but  a  revelation  by  Gabriel; 
and  cc.  10-12  in  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,  king  of 
Persia.  By  the  side  of  these  must  be  put  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's dream  in  Dan.  ii.  28-45  (second 
year  of  Nebuchadnezzar),  which,  in  its  four- 
empire  scheme,  corresponds  to  Daniel's  vision 
in  c.  7.  The  interpretations  which  Daniel  gives 
to  Nebuchadnezzar  or  the  angel  gives  to  Daniel, 
though  sometimes  surrounded  with  an  impres- 
sive air  of  mystery,  give  all  the  necessary  clues 
to  the  understanding  of  the  visions,  and  obscure 
allusions  are  often  made  plain  by  a  more  explicit 
parallel. 

Under  fantastic  and  varied  imagery,  they 
unroll  the  history  of  the  empires  which  succeed 
one  another  in  the  dominion  of  the  world,  from 
the  Babylonian  (Dan.  2  and  7),  or  the  Medo- 
Persian  (c.  8),  or  Persian  (cc.  10-12) — that  is 
from  the  assumed  standpoint  of  Daniel  — 
through  the  dominion  of  Alexander  and  the 
kingdoms  into  which  his  empire  was  broken  up, 
ending  always  with  the  reign  of  Antiochus  IV 
(175-164  B.  c).  The  goal  in  them  all  is  the 
destruction  of  the  heathen  power  and  the 
establishment  of  the  eternal  kingdom  of  the 
holy  people  of  the  Most  High,  otherwise,  the 
Jews. 


DANIEL  181 

The  simplest  form  of  this  scheme  is  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's dream  in  Dan.  2.  The  image  with 
head  of  gold,  breast  and  arms  of  silver,  belly 
and  thighs  of  brass,  legs  of  iron,  and  feet  part  of 
iron  and  part  of  clay,  stands  for  four  empires  in 
a  scale  of  deterioration,  like  the  four  ages  of 
Hesiod,  beginning  with  the  Babylonian,  repre- 
sented by  Nebuchadnezzar  himself.  This  is 
followed  by  an  inferior  kingdom,  and  that  by 
a  third  universal  empire;  the  destructive  strength 
of  the  fourth  is  figured  by  iron  which  shatters 
all  that  it  smites;  the  feet  and  toes  signify  a 
divided  kingdom,  in  part  strong  as  iron,  in  part 
brittle  as  pottery.  The  stone  which  smote  the 
image  on  the  feet  and  broke  them  to  pieces,  where- 
upon the  whole  image  collapsed  into  dust  and 
was  whirled  away  by  the  wind,  while  the  stone 
grew  to  a  great  mountain  and  filled  all  the  earth, 
is  the  kingdom  which  the  God  of  heaven  shall 
establish  in  those  days,  "which  shall  never  be 
destroyed,  nor  shall  the  sovereignty  thereof  be 
left  to  another  people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces 
and  annihilate  all  those  empires,  and  it  shall 
stand  forever." 

The  image  thus  represents  the  rule  of  the 
heathen  as  one  world-empire,  the  dominion  being 
exercised  successively  by  four  kingdoms  and 
by  the  divisions  of  the  fourth;  in  the  destruction 
of  these  last  the  heathen  world-empire  is  forever 
annihilated,  and  the  eternal  kingdom  of  God 
subdues  and  rules  the  whole  earth.  What  is 
said  about  the  second  and  third  kingdoms  is  too 
general  to  identify  them;  the  iron  strength  and 


182  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

destructiveness  of  the  fourth,  and  its  divisions 
with  their  mingled  strength  and  weakness,  natu- 
rally suggest  Alexander  and  his  successors,  and 
this  impression  is  strengthened  by  the  one 
specific  trait  in  the  whole  picture:  the  vain  effort 
to  make  iron  and  wet  clay  combine  signifies, 
we  are  told,  an  equally  futile  attempt  to  bind  the 
divided  kingdoms  together  by  intermarriages 
(Dan.  ii.  43).  We  know  from  the  historians 
that  attempts  to  ally  the  kingdoms  of  the  Ptol- 
emies in  Egypt  and  the  Seleucids  in  Syria  by 
dynastic  marriages  were  repeatedly  made  in 
vain,  and  the  author  of  Daniel  himself,  in  c.  11, 
refers  to  these  alliances  and  their  disastrous 
failure  in  plain  terms. 

The  vision  of  Daniel  in  c.  7  brings  in  the  four 
empires  under  the  symbol  of  four  monstrous 
beasts.  The  fourth,  more  terrible  and  more 
destructive  than  the  others,  has  ten  horns  ("out 
of  this  kingdom  ten  kings  shall  arise,"  vs.  24); 
another  horn,  "with  the  eyes  of  a  man  and  a 
boastful  mouth,"  arises  which  roots  out  three 
of  the  ten.  Daniel  sees  how  he  makes  war  on 
the  "holy  men"  (i.  e.  the  Jews)  and  prevails 
over  them  (vs.  21);  the  interpreting  angel 
describes  in  more  detail  the  crimes  of  the  last 
king :  he  will  utter  speeches  against  the  High- 
est, and  wear  out  the  holy  men  of  the  Most 
High,  and  try  to  change  (religious)  seasons 
and  law  (religion).  God*s  people  will  be  de- 
livered into  his  power  till  the  expiration  of 
three  and  a  half  years  (cf.  xii.  7).  Then  the 
proud  king  and  his  kingdom  will  be  annihilated 


DANIEL  183 

and   the   universal   and  eternal   empire   of  the 
Jews  established. 

Still  more  definite  is  the  description  of  the 
doings  of  the  "little  horn"  which  springs  up  on 
the  head  of  the  great  he-goat  in  the  vision  of 
c.  8.  Here  the  interpreter  becomes  explicit:  the 
he-goat  is  by  name  the  Macedonian  empire.  The 
little  horn  is  a  king  who  shall  arise  in  the  latter 
time  of  the  divided  kingdoms  of  Alexander's 
successors.  This  king  magnifies  himself  against 
the  chief  of  the  heavenly  host,  casts  down  his 
sanctuary,  takes  away  his  daily  burnt-offerings, 
and  destroys  the  holy  people;  and  is  then  him- 
self suddenly  "broken  without  hand."  In  the 
further  explanation  given  to  Daniel  in  ix.  26  ff., 
the  cessation  of  the  daily  sacrifice  is  to  last  half 
a  week  (of  years),  i.  e.  three  and  a  half  years; 
the  profanation  of  the  sanctuary  and  suppression 
of  the  sacrifices  and  the  persecution  of  the  Jews 
occur  again  in  xi.  31  ff.  (cf.  xii.  5-12).  In  connec- 
tion with  this  we  hear  of  setting  up  of  a  "des- 
olating (or  appalling)  abomination,"  in  the 
temple.  The  common  use  of  "abomination" 
(loathsome  thing)  for  idols  or  other  objects 
of  heathen  worship  leaves  no  doubt  that  some 
such  object  is  meant  here:  the  king  not  only 
stopped  the  worship  of  the  God  of  the  Jews  in 
his  own  temple,  but  established  in  its  place  a 
heathen  cult.  It  is,  indeed,  not  improbable  that 
the  words  translated  "appalling  abomination" 
are  an  intentional  distortion  of  the  proper 
name  of  the  heathen  god  Baal  Shamaim,  i.  e. 
Jupiter. 


184  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

The  definiteness  of  all  this  proves  that  the 
author  is  not  creating  an  imaginary  monster 
in  whom  all  the  sins  of  the  heathen  rulers 
against  the  God  of  Heaven  and  his  people 
are  accumulated,  but  describing  a  historical 
figure.  Nor  is  there  the  smallest  room  for 
question  whose  portrait  he  is  painting:  every 
feature  of  it  belongs  to  Antiochus  IV,  Epi- 
phanes  (Manifest  God,  the  title  means,  which 
Antiochian  wits  perverted  to  Epimanes,  Man- 
ifest Madman),  who  in  168  B.  c.  took  posses- 
sion of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  suppressed 
the  worship  of  its  God,  erected  an  altar  of 
Jupiter  on  the  great  altar  of  burnt  offering, 
and  inaugurated  heathen  sacrifices.  Not  only 
that,  but  he  forbade  circumcision,  the  obser- 
vance of  the  sabbath,  and  the  possession  of 
copies  of  the  scriptures,  and  commanded  that 
Jews  should  certify  their  abjuration  of  their  own 
religion  by  sacrificing  to  his  gods.  Those  who 
ignored  or  defied  his  decrees  were  persecuted; 
many  of  them  put  to  death.  This  attempt  to 
extirpate  the  Jewish  religion  and  forcibly  heathen- 
ize the  people  provoked  a  revolt  led  by  Judas 
Maccabseus  and  his  brothers,  who  three  years 
later  recovered  the  temple,  purged  it,  and  re- 
stored the  sacrifices. 

If  there  could  be  any  doubt  about  the  identi- 
fication, it  would  be  removed  by  Dan.  11,  which, 
as  was  recognized  by  Porphyry  in  the  third 
century  of  our  era,  contains  a  minute  history 
of  the  relations  of  the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucids, 
their   intermarriages   and   their   wars,   with   in- 


DANIEL  185 

creasing  detail,  down  to  the  Egyptian  campaigns 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  —  mentioning,  for  in- 
stance, the  rebuff  he  received  from  the  Roman 
envoy  (PopiUius  Laenas)  and  in  the  sequel  of 
this  his  desecration  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem 
and  persecution  of  the  law-abiding  Jews  —  and 
there  the  history  ends. 

All  this  is  supposed  to  be  revealed  to  Daniel 
in  the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  under  later 
Babylonian  and  Median  kings  down  to  the  first 
year  of  Cyrus,  that  is,  according  to  the  historical 
chronology,  about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
years  before  the  event.  Such  visionary  panora- 
mas form  a  recognized  genus  of  Jewish  hterature, 
and  they  are  regularly  unrolled  to  some  man  of 
God  in  the  remote  or  remotest  past.  In  the  second 
and  first  centuries  before  our  era  a  great  variety 
of  such  visions  was  attributed  to  Enoch,  others 
to  Noah;  revelations  to  Seth  the  son  of  Adam 
were  once  popular,  and  Adam  himself  had  some. 
Another  class,  like  Daniel,  bore  the  names  of 
men  of  the  exile;  Baruch  is  the  putative  father 
of  several  such  revelations;  one  of  the  most 
notable  of  the  kind  is  the  apocalypse  of  Ezra 
which  stands  in  the  Apocrypha  in  our  Bible  as 
Second  Esdras. 

The  age  of  such  apocalypses  is  determined,  not 
by  the  date  assigned  to  the  imaginary  seer,  but 
by  the  actual  standpoint  of  the  author  as  dis- 
closed in  the  visions.  In  Daniel  the  historical 
panorama  is  unrolled  every  time  to  the  reign  of 
Antiochus  IV,  and  there  stops.  The  writer  had 
witnessed  the  desecration  of  the  temple  and  the 


186  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

persecution  of  the  Jews  for  their  religion,  he  had 
seen  the  first  small  successes  of  the  Maccabees, 
but  the  recovery  of  the  temple  and  the  restora- 
tion of  sacrifice  had  not  yet  occurred.  The  death 
of  Antiochus  is  circumstantially  predicted,  but 
in  a  place  and  manner  very  remote  from  the 
reality  (Dan.  xi.  45).  The  visions  of  Daniel 
fall,  therefore,  between  December  168  b.  c,  the 
date  of  the  desecration  of  the  temple,  and  De- 
cember 165,  the  restoration.  The  motives  of  the 
stories  also  (see  above,  p.  178  f.)  are  most  appro- 
priate to  the  situation  under  Antiochus.  It  is 
possible  that  they  are  adaptations  of  older  tales, 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  they  are 
of  high  antiquity.  The  Greek  Bible  has  three 
additional  stories  about  Daniel  (Susanna  and  the 
Elders,  Bel,  and  the  Dragon)  which  stand  in  our 
Bibles  among  the  Apocrypha. 

One  peculiarity  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  remains 
for  brief  mention.  Like  Ezra,  it  is  in  two  lan- 
guages: Dan.  i.  1-ii.  4  is  in  Hebrew,  from  ii.  4  b 
to  the  end  of  c.  7  in  Aramaic,  and  from  the 
beginning  of  c.  8  the  rest  is  in  Hebrew  again. 
The  Aramaic  begins  appropriately  where  the 
Chaldseans  (diviners)  are  introduced  speaking 
in  what  the  author  evidently  conceives  to  be 
the  language  of  the  country;  the  text  does  not, 
however,  revert  to  Hebrew  when  this  conference 
is  over,  but  holds  on,  not  only  through  all  the 
rest  of  the  stories,  but  through  the  first  vision 
(c.  7).  A  motive  for  just  this  distribution  of  the 
two  tongues  is  not  discoverable;  in  the  chap- 
ter of  accidents  are  various  possibilities  which 


DANIEL  187 


offset  one  another.  As  in  Ezra  —  though  there 
are  some  differences  between  the  two  books 
—  the  Aramaic  is  of  a  kind  which  was  vernacu- 
lar in  Palestine  in  the  last  centuries  before  our 
era. 


CHAPTER  XX 

MINOR   PROPHETS 

The  Minor  Prophets  —  so  called  not  in  depre- 
ciation, but  because  their  books  are  smaller 
than  those  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel  — 
form  in  the  Jewish  Bible  one  book,  in  which  are 
brought  together  oracles  in  the  name  of  various 
prophets  from  the  eighth  century  b.  c.  (Amos, 
Hosea)  to  the  fifth  (Haggai,  Zechariah),  and  one 
anonymous  book  (Malachi).  As  in  the  collec- 
tions which  bear  in  their  titles  the  names  of 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  so  in  the  collection  of  the 
Twelve,  prophecies  have  been  attributed,  by 
error  or  conjecture  or  accident,  to  prophets  to 
whom  they  do  not  belong,  and  additions  and 
alterations  have  been  made  by  compilers  or 
editors.  The  extent  of  this  alien  matter  differs 
in  different  books;  Hosea,  for  example,  seems 
to  contain  little  of  it,  while  in  Micah  it  is 
considerable. 

Hosea 

In  our  Bibles,  in  which  the  Minor  Prophets 
stand  and  are  counted  individually,  the  first 
is  Hosea.  This  position,  which  it  has  also  in 
the  Hebrew  Bible,   may  have  been  given  the 

188 


MINOR  PROPHETS  189 

book,  partly  on  account  of  its  age,  partly  on 
Account  of  its  length;  but  it  might  also  claim  it 
by  reason  of  its  worth,  for  Hosea  is  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  prophets,  not  in  Minor  company 
alone,  but  in  the  canon.  No  other  contributed 
so  much,  through  his  own  words  and  through 
his  great  successors,  Jeremiah  and  the  Deuter- 
onomists,  to  deepen  and  spiritualize  the  concep- 
tion of  religion. 

Hosea  was  an  Israelite  who  began  to  pro- 
phesy to  his  countrymen  in  the  reign  of  Jero- 
boam II,  probably  about  750  b.  c,  and  after 
Jeroboam's  death  witnessed  at  least  the  begin- 
ning of  that  procession  of  assassinations  and 
revolutions  through  which  the  kingdom  hurried 
to  meet  its  fate;  but  it  does  not  appear  from 
his  book  that  he  hved  to  see  the  invasion  of 
Tiglath-Pileser  and  the  loss  of  Gilead  and  Galilee 
in  734  B.  c.  in  which  his  own  predictions  of 
impending  doom  had  so  signal  a  verification. 
Their  complete  fulfillment  came  in  721,  when 
Sargon  made  an  end  forever  of  the  kingdom  of 
Israel,  and  deported  many  of  the  people  of  Sa- 
maria to  remote  quarters  of  his  empire. 

The  Book  of  Hosea  opens  with  chapters  out 
of  the  prophet's  experience  with  his  unfaithful 
wife,  in  which  he  sees  a  counterpart  and  symbol 
of  God's  experience  with  Israel.  The  discovery 
of  this  significance  in  the  tragedy  of  his  life  is 
what  made  him  a  prophet.  He  saw  then  that 
it  was  for  this  he  had  been  led  to  marry  a  woman 
who  turned  out  a  gross  adulteress.  When  he 
drove  her  from  his  house,  when  later  he  bought 


190  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

her  out  of  the  servitude  into  which  she  had  sunk, 
and  by  seclusion  and  a  discipHne  at  once  firm 
and  kind  tried  to  win  her  back  by  love  to  vir- 
tue, that,  too,  was  an  apologue  of  God's  dealing 
with  his  people  (see  especially  Hos.  i.  2-9;  iii. 
1-5) .  He  is  the  first,  apparently,  to  use  the  met- 
aphor adultery,  or  fornication,  for  religious  de- 
fection. The  oracle,  ii.  2-23,  translates  it  into 
its  historical  terms  and  discloses  Hosea's  con- 
struction of  the  religious  history  of  Israel.  The 
root  of  Israel's  apostasy  w^as  the  belief  that  the 
gods  of  the  soil  of  Canaan,  the  baals,  gave  the 
corn  and  the  wine  and  the  oil  which  in  re- 
ality its  own  God,  Jehovah,  bestowed.  There- 
fore he  will  take  away  all  these,  which  she  deems 
the  gift  of  the  baals,  the  wages  of  her  prostitu- 
tion, and  will  lead  the  people  into  the  desert  of 
exile.  But  he  will  be  with  them  there  to  com- 
fort and  encourage,  and  Israel  will  return  to  its 
first  love  as  in  the  early  days  when  it  was  alone 
with  God  in  the  desert  of  the  exodus.  Then  the 
old  relation  will  be  restored,  never  to  be  broken, 
and  the  gifts  in  the  new  betrothal  are  uprightness 
and  justice  and  charity  and  kindness  of  heart  and 
faithfulness  and  the  knowledge  of  God  (Hosea's 
word  for  religion).  That  will  be  the  golden  age! 
(See  Hos.  ii.  18-23.) 

When  the  Jew  says  his  Shema  or  the  Christian 
his  Great  Commandment,  *'Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart  and  with  all 
thy  soul  and  with  all  thy  might,"  it  is  Hosea's 
great  thought  he  is  repeating.  Hosea  interprets 
God's  dealing  with  his  people  by  his  faith  in 


MINOR  PROPHETS  191 

God*s  inextinguishable  love.  Outraged  love 
may  smite  harder  than  offended  righteousness, 
but  its  blows  are  remedial,  not  retributive  or 
expiatory;  its  aim  not  to  satisfy  justice,  but  to 
recover  the  erring.  The  exile,  which  for  Amos 
is  the  final  vindication  of  God's  righteousness  in 
the  death  of  the  sinful  nation,  is  for  Hosea  a 
chastisement  which  leads  to  repentance  and 
restoration.  He  is  therefore  the  author  of  that 
ideal  of  a  golden  age  of  godliness  and  uprightness 
and  happiness,  beyond  the  impending  judgment 
or  the  present  oppression,  which  is  one  of  the 
leading  motives  of  the  so-called  messianic 
prophecy. 

The  rest  of  the  book  (cc.  4-14)  consists  of  a 
collection  of  oracles,  without  titles,  and  often 
without  obvious  boundaries.  They  contain  an 
appalling  picture  of  the  sins  of  the  nation  as  a 
whole  and  of  all  classes  of  society;  kings  and 
princes,  priests  and  prophets  and  people  —  all 
are  corrupt.  The  theme  of  the  whole  may  be 
read  in  Hos.  iv.  If:  "There  is  no  truth,  nor 
charity,  nor  knowledge  of  God  (religion)  in  the 
land;  naught  but  swearing  and  breaking  faith 
and  murder  and  theft  and  adultery."  Therefore 
ruin  yawns  before  the  nation.  Yet  God  will  not 
destroy  utterly;  all  the  pathos  of  the  divine  love 
finds  words  in  such  passages  as  xi.  8  ff.,  "How 
can  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?"  or  xiv.  1  ff., 
"O  Israel,  return  unto  the  Lord  thy  God." 

This  book  of  a  prophet  of  the  northern  kingdom 
has  come  down  to  us  through  Judsean  hands; 
the  title,  with  its  list  of  Judsean  kings    (exactly 


192  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  same  as  in  the  title  of  Isaiah),  is  doubtless 
due  to  a  Jewish  editor,  and  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  in  the  text  itself  Jewish  touches,  such  as 
the  words  "and  David  their  king"  in  iii.  5,  or 
i.  11,  but  these  are  not  numerous  nor  important. 
The  text  of  Hosea  is,  however,  unusually  corrupt. 
The  prophet's  style  is  very  diflficult,  and  scribes 
did  as  they  commonly  do  with  a  difficult  text, 
they  made  mechanical  mistakes  because  they 
did  not  understand  and  false  emendations  be- 
cause they  thought  they  understood  what  they 
did  not. 

Joel 

Joel  was  probably  put  between  Hosea  and 
Amos  because  the  editors  of  the  Book  of  the 
Twelve  thought  that  he  was  one  of  the  earlier 
prophets,  and,  chiefly  because  of  its  position, 
this  opinion  has  been  general  until  recent  times. 
In  the  book  itself  there  are  neither  names  nor 
identifiable  historical  allusions  by  which  its 
age  can  be  determined.  The  whole  situation, 
however,  is  that  of  the  so-called  post-exilic 
times. 

The  occasion  of  the  prophecy  w^th  which  the 
book  begins  was  a  portentous  plague  of  locusts, 
whose  invasion  and  ravages  are  described  in 
Joel  1-2  in  highly  poetical  imagery.  Locusts  and 
drought  together  have  so  devastated  the  land  that 
both  men  and  beasts  are  perishing,  and  —  the 
last  touch  of  the  extremity  —  the  obligatory 
daily  offerings  in  the  temple  have  been  cut  off. 
The  prophet  calls  to  fasting  and  supplication; 


MINOR  PROPHETS  193 

perhaps  God  may  be  entreated  to  have  mercy 
on  them  (ii.  12-17).  God  had  pity  on  his  people; 
the  following  oracle  (ii.  18-27)  promises  rehef 
and  everlasting  prosperity.  The  visitation  seems 
to  the  prophet  an  omen  of  the  dread  "Day  of  the 
Lord."  He  sees  the  nations  gather  beneath  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem  (in  the  valley  with  the  omi- 
nous name,  Jehoshaphat,  "Jehovah  judges")  for 
the  last  onset,  to  be  annihilated  by  the  inter- 
vention of  God.  Then  the  golden  age  will  be 
ushered  in. 

The  heads  of  the  people  are  priests  and  elders; 
of  king  and  princes  there  is  no  word.  The  Judah 
and  Jerusalem  which  the  prophet  addresses  are 
the  religious  community  which  assembles  in 
the  temple;  people  and  congregation  are  the 
same  thing.  This  one  observation  takes  Joel 
out  of  the  company  of  Amos  and  Hosea  and  puts 
him  by  the  side  of  Malachi.  All  the  other  fea- 
tures of  the  book  confirm  this  date.  Assyrians 
or  Babylonians,  without  whom  no  picture  of  the 
Day  of  the  Lord  in  the  pre-exilic  prophets  would 
be  complete,  are  not  here;  Israel  has  disappeared. 

The  author  has  read  much  prophetic  literature; 
reminiscences  in  thought  and  phrase  meet  us  at 
every  turn.  The  heathen  in  the  Valley  of  Jehosh- 
aphat are  Ezekiel's  hordes  of  Gog  (Ezek.  38  f .) ; 
the  fountain  that  flows  from  the  house  of  the 
Lord  is  a  modest  counterpart  of  the  river  that 
sweetens  the  Dead  Sea  (Ezek.  47).  The  thumb- 
prints of  editorial  hands  have  been  thought  to 
betray  themselves  in  several  places,  and  some 
students  would  give  a  larger  range  to  this  ob- 


194  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

servation.  The  additions,  if  such  they  are,  are 
not  far  remote  in  time  from  the  original  book, 
and  reflect  the  same  religious  conceptions. 


Amos 

A  dramatic  scene  in  Amos  vii.  10-17  describes 
the  appearance  of  Amos  at  Bethel  on  a  high 
festival,  with  his  presages  of  swift  and  utter 
ruin  for  Israel  (cf.  vii.  1-9).  That  his  hearers 
greeted  the  message  with  incredulity  can  well  be 
believed,  for  under  Jeroboam  II  Israel  was 
at  the  very  culmination  of  its  power  and  pros- 
perity. The  chief  priest  of  Bethel  was  not  minded 
to  let  such  speech  pass  in  his  diocese;  as  scorn- 
fully as  Creon  dismisses  the  prophet  Teiresias 
in  the  Antigone,  he  bids  Amos  be  gone:  *'0 
Seer,  be  off,  flee  to  the  land  of  Judah;  make  thy 
living  there,  and  there  do  thy  prophesying.  But 
prophesy  no  more  at  Bethel,  for  it  is  a  royal 
temple  and  a  residence  city.'*  Spurning  the 
contemptuous  insinuation,  Amos  answers:  "No 
prophet  am  I,  and  no  member  of  the  prophetic 
order,  but  a  herdsman  am  I  and  a  ripener  of 
sycamore  figs.  Jehovah  took  me  from  following 
the  flock,  and  bade  me.  Go  prophesy  against 
my  people  Israel."  Incidentally  we  see  in  how 
low  esteem  the  professional  prophet  stood,  that 
the  priest  should  make  a  taunt  of  the  name  and 
the  prophet  indignantly  repel  it. 

The  priest  followed  up  his  warning  by  a  report 
to  the  king,  and  we  may  safely  conclude  that 
Amos  prophesied  no  more  at  Bethel.     Perhaps 


MINOR  PROPHETS  195 

it  was  the  rude  end  of  his  mission  that  prompted 
him  to  collect  his  oracles  into  a  book,  the  earliest 
example  of  such  a  collection,  as  a  witness  to  his 
own  generation  and  to  that  which  should  see  the 
fulfillment. 

The  title,  this  part  of  which  may  well  be 
original,  describes  Amos  as  a  shepherd  from 
Tekoa,  in  the  wilderness  of  Judah.  Beyond 
the  brief  scene  at  Bethel  nothing  more  is  told 
of  him  in  the  book  or  out  of  it.  But  the  book 
is  his  monument. 

It  is  one  of  the  easiest  of  the  prophetic  books 
to  understand  and  one  of  the  best  preserved. 
Chapters  1  and  2  contain  a  series  of  brief  oracles, 
on  the  same  plan,  against  the  neighbors  of  Israel, 
the  Syrians  of  Damascus,  the  Philistines,  Phoe- 
nicians, Edomites,  Ammonites,  Moabites,  Ju- 
dseans,  leading  up  to  a  longer  indictment  of  Israel 
and  denunciation  of  God's  judgment  upon  it. 
This  is  followed  by  prophecies  against  Israel 
(cc.  3-6),  which  seem  to  be  formally  divided 
into  three  parts  by  the  introductory  formula, 
"Hear  this  word"  (iii.  1;  iv.  1;  v.  1),  but  by 
subject  would  naturally  fall  into  a  larger  number 
of  oracles.  Chapter  7  begins  with  three  visions, 
the  delivery  of  which  at  Bethel  may  have  pro- 
voked Amaziah's  interference  (vii.  10-17);  c.  8 
again  opens  with  a  vision,  in  which  the  basket 
of  summer  fruit  (kais)  is  to  the  prophet  a  sym- 
bol of  the  coming  end  (kes)  of  Israel;  in  c.  9 
Amos  sees  the  Lord  standing  beside  the  altar 
and  pronouncing  the  word  of  destruction  and 
inescapable  doom  (ix.  1-8^),  from  which  an  awk- 


196  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ward  transition  (ix.  8^-10)  carries  us  to  a  pre- 
diction of  the  restoration  of  David's  kingdom 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  golden  age. 

The  doom  which  Amos  sees  impending  o'^er 
Israel  is  visited  upon  it  in  retribution  for  the 
wrongs  which  men  inflict  upon  their  fellows,  the 
oppression  of  the  poor  by  the  rich,  the  small  man 
by  the  great;  the  injustice,  often  in  the  forms 
of  law,  by  which  men  are  deprived  of  property 
and  liberty;  the  luxury,  aping  foreign  modes, 
which  is  not  only  corrupting  in  itself,  but  is  the 
chief  motive  of  injustice  and  oppression  and 
fraud.  The  very  prosperity  of  the  nation  was 
its  ruin. 

With  all  this,  Israel  is  very  religious;  it 
acknowledges  the  success  in  war  and  the  profit 
of  commerce  as  the  gift  of  the  national  God  and 
evidence  of  his  favor,  and  does  not  grudge  him 
his  share  even  of  ill-gotten  gains.  Amos's  God 
has  a  conscience  —  that  was  a  new  idea  about 
gods!  —  and  abhors  such  religion;  he  hates  their 
festivals,  refuses  their  sacrifices,  spurns  their 
hymns  of  praise.  *'But  let  justice  roll  down  like 
floods,  and  right  like  an  unfailing  stream." 
That  is  the  only  worship  he  owns. 

The  standard  of  right  is  not  one  thing  in 
Israel  and  another  among  the  heathen:  Amos 
summons  the  Philistines  and  the  Egyptians  to 
behold  with  amazement  and  horror  the  doings 
in  Samaria.  In  the  oracles  with  which  the  book 
opens,  he  pronounces  the  judgment  of  God  on 
the  peoples  neighbor  to  Israel,  not  solely  because 
they  have  wronged  Israel,  as  in  so  many  of  the 


MINOR  PROPHETS  197 

prophecies  against  the  nations,  but  because  they 
have  violated  the  principles  of  humanity.  It  is 
the  first  assertion  in  the  Old  Testament  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  an  international  morality. 
Amos  is  the  first  in  the  succession  of  ethical 
prophets,  the  author,  so  far  as  we  know,  of  a 
new  idea  of  religion.  It  is  deeply  significant 
that  he  and  Hosea  are  contemporaries;  hardly 
more  than  ten  years  can  lie  between  Amos's 
appearance  at  Bethel  and  the  earliest  of  Hosea's 
prophecies  against  the  house  of  Jehu.  The  God 
of  Amos  is  the  apotheosis  of  right,  the  conscience 
of  the  world  that  can  neither  be  corrupted  nor 
sophisticated;  the  God  of  Hosea  was  born  in  the 
heart  of  a  man  whose  love  the  grossest  wrong 
could  not  quench.  Retribution  is  the  divinity 
of  the  one,  redemption  of  the  other. 

Amos's  conception  was  the  first  to  take  hold; 
the  earlier  prophecies  of  Isaiah  against  Judah 
are  wholly  in  that  mood.  Hosea  had  to  wait 
a  century  before  his  greater  thought  found  a 
fruitful  soil  in  Jeremiah  and  the  Deuteronomists. 

The  predictions  of  judgment  in  Amos  are 
so  sweeping  and  ultimate  that  later  readers  found 
the  message  incomplete.  Especially  the  last 
oracle  (ix.  1  ff.)  was  an  ill-omened  close.  Con- 
sequently, a  messianic  pendant  was  attached  to 
it  (ix.  11-15)  by  a  Judsean  editor,  and  an  imper- 
fect juncture  made  by  the  introduction  of  vs. 
8^  (which  flatly  contradicts  the  first  half  verse) 
and  9^  (no  grain  shall  fall  to  the  ground)  per- 
haps displacing  some  words  of  the  original. 

It  seems  that  some  imitative  pieces  have  been 


198  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

inserted  also  in  c.  1 ;  the  prophecy  against  Judah 
in  ii.  4  f.  with  its  deuteronomic  sins,  falls  out  of 
the  scheme  and  is  generally  recognized  as  edi- 
torial. Slight  retouches  elsewhere  (e.  g.  iv.  13; 
V.  8  f.;  ix.  6)  need  not  detain  us.  In  general  the 
book  has  suffered  little  from  the  improvers,  and 
the  text  is  in  relatively  good  preservation. 

Obadiah 

The  single  chapter  of  Obadiah,  the  shortest 
of  the  Old  Testament  books,  is  a  prophecy 
against  the  Edomites,  toward  whom,  as  we  have 
repeatedly  seen,  the  Jews  cherished  an  impla- 
cable animosity  from  the  time  of  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem. Obadiah  vss.  1-9  has  close  parallels  in 
Jer.  xlix.  7-22  (cf.  Obad.  vss.  1-4  with  Jer.  xlix. 
14-16;  Obad.  vs.  5  f.,  Jer.  xlix.  9  f.;  Obad.  vs. 
8,  Jer.  xlix.  7).  The  question  which  is  the  bor- 
rower has  been  differently  answered.  Obadiah 
vss.  15-21,  in  which  Edom  gets  its  judgment  in 
the  Day  of  the  Lord  on  the  nations  is  probably 
later  than  vss.  1-14,  but  the  whole  is  post-exilic. 

Jonah 

The  Book  of  Jonah  has  already  been  discussed 
along  with  the  stories  of  Esther  and  Ruth. 

Micah 

The  prediction  of  Micah,  the  Morashtite,  that 
Zion  should  be  plowed  as  a  field  and  Jerusalem 
be  a  heap  of  ruins  and  the  temple  hill  become 


MINOR  PROPHETS  199 

like  forest  shrines  (Mic.  iii.  2),  is  quoted  under 
his  name  in  Jer.  xxvi.  18  —  the  only  example  of 
such  a  prophetic  quotation  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  author,  a  resident  of  Moresheth-Gath  in 
the  Judsean  Lowland,  is  said  in  the  title  to  have 
prophesied  in  the  days  of  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and 
Hezekiah,  which  is  the  editor's  way  of  saying 
that  he  was  a  younger  contemporary  of  Isaiah. 
The  reign  of  Hezekiah  is  attested  by  the  tradi- 
tion in  Jeremiah.  It  is  probable  that  only  cc. 
1-3  (with  perhaps  some  dubious  possibilities  in 
the  following  chapters)  can  be  attributed  to 
Micah. 

The  book  opens  with  an  oracle  against  Samaria 
(Mic.  i.  2-8).  Samaria  fell  in  721  b.  c,  while 
the  sequel  (vs.  9  ff.)  portrays  the  imminent 
peril  of  Judah,  presumably  in  the  time  of  Sen- 
nacherib (701  B.  c).  The  case  seems  to  be  similar 
to  Isa.  xxviii.  1  ff.:  the  fate  of  Samaria,  though 
it  is  already  fact,  is  represented  prophetically 
for  a  closer  parallel  to  the  following.  Verses 
10-16  are  little  more  than  a  string  of  ominous 
puns  on  the  names  of  towns  in  the  author's 
Lowland,  which  in  translation  lose  what  little 
point  they  have.  The  second  chapter  gives  the 
cause  of  the  woe  much  as  in  Amos  or  Isaiah,  but 
perhaps  with  local  emphasis  on  the  wrongs  the 
capitalists  of  the  great  city  inflict  on  the  peasant 
proprietors.  His  forebodings  and  censures  are 
not  well  received,  men  bid  him  stop  his  preaching, 
it  is  a  different  sort  of  prophet  they  like  (ii.  6-11). 
"If  a  man,  walking  in  wind  and  falsehood, 
should  lie,  'I  will  preach  to  thee  of  wine  and 


200  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

drink,'  he  will  be  the  preacher  for  this  people." 
Micah  has  more  to  say,  but  not  better,  about 
the  demagogue  prophets  in  the  following  oracle 
(iii.  5-7).  The  predictions  of  disaster  in  ii.  1-11 
have  their  point  blunted  in  vs.  12  f.  in  the  way 
the  editors  of  the  prophetic  books  so  often  do  it. 

Chapter  3  returns  to  condemnation,  which 
turns  at  last  on  the  heads  of  the  rulers  "who 
build  up  Zion  with  blood  and  Jerusalem  with 
iniquity,"  and  ends  with  the  prediction  of  the 
total  destruction  of  the  city  which  has  already 
been  quoted. 

Then  the  unexpected  follows,  in  the  prophecy 
that  Jerusalem  shall  become  the  religious  center 
of  the  earth,  to  which  all  nations  flow,  and  the 
law  of  God  the  universal  arbiter  in  an  age  of  uni- 
versal peace  (Mic.  iv.  1-5).  Verses  1-3  are  found 
also,  in  no  more  suitable  context,  in  Isa.  ii.  2-4. 
They  belong  to  neither  Isaiah  nor  Micah.  For 
the  rest,  Mic.  4-5  and  cc.  6-7  contain  a  number 
of  pieces  of  diverse  age  and  origin.  Chapters  iv. 
6-v.  1  are  as  a  whole  of  good  omen,  yet  after  the 
promise  of  restoration  in  iv.  8,  Jerusalem  is  sud- 
denly in  desperate  straits;  exile  awaits  its  people, 
and  only  beyond  the  exile  (the  words  *'thou  shalt 
come  even  unto  Babylon"  may  be  a  gloss,  but  the 
meaning  is  not  essentially  changed)  redemption 
waits  (iv.  9  f.).  In  iv.  11-13,  again,  many  nations 
gather  against  Zion,  but  it  crushes  them  like 
sheaves  on  the  threshing  floor.  There  follows  (v. 
2-9,  10-15)  a  messianic  prophecy,  in  which  an 
allusion  to  Isa.  vii.  14  appears. 

No  less  strangely  assorted  are  the  oracles  in 


MINOR  PROPHETS  201 

Mic.  6-7,  of  which  there  are  four:  vi.  1-8  vi. 
9-16;  vii.  1-6;  vii.  7-20.  The  first  of  these  con- 
tains the  quintessence  of  the  prophetic  concep- 
tion of  rehgion :  God  does  not  demand  holocausts 
and  costly  offerings  in  expiation  of  sin;  nor  the 
supreme  expiation  which  the  prophets  and  the 
laws  of  the  seventh  century  so  often  reject  and 
condemn:  "Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my 
transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of 
my  soul?  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man.  What 
is  good  and  what  doth  God  require  of  thee,  but 
to  do  justice  and  love  mercy  and  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?" 

Trenchant  condemnations  of  the  sins  of  the 
times  fill  vi.  9-16  and  vii.  1-6,  the  former  of  which, 
at  least,  is  pre-exilic;  while  the  book  closes  in 
the  situation  and  spirit  of  Isa.  40  ff.  Thus  the 
Book  of  Micah,  like  that  of  his  contemporary 
Isaiah,  has  been  a  depository  for  prophecies  dif- 
fering in  age  by  several  centuries.  Perhaps  the 
book  once  stood  at  the  end  of  a  roll,  and  was  there- 
fore the  natural  place  to  add  stray  and  nameless 
pieces,  as  happened  later  to  the  Book  of  Zechariah 
at  the  end  of  the  volume  of  the  Minor  Prophets. 

Nahum 

In  the  three  larger  prophetic  books  we  have 
found  groups  of  oracles  against  foreign  nations, 
some  relatively  old,  many  late  and  literary  vari- 
ations on  given  motives  —  it  was  evidently  a 
grateful  theme.  In  Nahum  we  have  a  whole 
book  occupied  with  the  impending  fall  of  Nine- 


202  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

veh  and  the  Assyrian  empire,  which  had  so  long 
and  so  brutally  tyrannized  over  all  western  Asia. 
Now  its  hour  has  struck,  and  the  prophet  triumphs 
over  the  fate  of  the  old  lion,  who  "rent  in  pieces 
to  satisfy  his  whelps  and  strangled  for  his  lion- 
esses, and  filled  his  dens  with  prey  and  his  lairs 
with  ravin."  His  imagination  revels  in  the  ter- 
rors of  the  onslaught,  the  horrors  of  the  sack, 
which  he  depicts  with  unsurpassed  vividness  and 
great  poetic  power.  It  is  the  judgment  of  the 
Lord,  long  deferred,  but  sure  and  final  (Nah.  1). 

In  Nah.  iii.  8-10  the  fate  of  the  Egyptian 
Thebes  is  adduced  as  an  historic  example:  all 
her  power  could  not  save  her,  and  it  shall  fare  no 
better  with  Nineveh.  The  reference  is  probably 
to  the  capture  of  Thebes  by  Assurbanipal  in  661 
B.  c.  Nineveh  itself  fell  about  606  b.  c.  under  an 
attack  of  enemies  from  the  north  (Medes  or  Scyth- 
ians), and  was  destroyed  never  to  be  restored. 
With  it  the  Assyrians  disappear  from  history. 
The  prophecy  of  Nahum  was  probably  delivered 
shortly  before  this  event,  though  a  date  twenty 
years  earlier,  when,  according  to  Herodotus, 
Nineveh  barely  escaped  from  a  similar  onset  by 
Cyaxares,  is  not  strictly  impossible. 

It  is  thought  by  many  scholars  that  the  first 
chapter  (with  which  ii.  2  must  go)  is  a  later  com- 
position, a  poem,  much  deranged,  originally  in 
acrostic  form. 

Habakkuk 
The  Book  of  Habakkuk  predicts  that  Jehovah 
is  about  to  raise  up  the  fierce  Chaldsean  nation. 


MINOR  PROPHETS  203 

which  marches  through  the  breadth  of  the  earth 
to  occupy  habitations  not  belonging  to  it,  which 
scoffs  at  kings  and  has  dynasts  in  derision,  laugh- 
ing at  all  fortresses,  against  which  it  casts  up  a 
mound  and  takes  them  (Hab.  i.  5-11).  Such  a 
prophecy  would  be  timely  in  the  last  years  of  the 
seventh  century:  the  Chaldsean,  or  New  Baby- 
lonian, kingdom  dates  its  independence  from 
6*^5 ,  and  is  hardly  likely  to  have  attracted  much 
attention  in  the  West  before  the  fall  of  Nineveh 
in  606  B.  c.  and  the  defeat  of  Pharaoh  Necho  on 
the  Euphrates  in  605  b.  c. 

The  prophecy,  which  does  not  specifically 
threaten  Judah,  intrudes  between  i.  4  and  i.  12  ff., 
where  the  plaint  of  vss.  2-4  is  continued,  so  that 
vss.  5-11  are  at  least  misplaced.  This  complaint 
is  of  the  oppression  of  "the  righteous"  (Judah) 
by  *'the  wicked"  (heathen,  i.  13-17).  From  his 
watch  tower  the  prophet  sees  a  vision  of  a  distant 
time,  which  he  is  bidden  record,  and  of  whose  ul- 
timate fulfillment  he  is  assured  (ii.  1-3).  What 
follows  is  a  series  of  invectives  which  the  nations 
he  has  gathered  under  his  robber  rule  shall  heap 
upon  the  fallen  oppressor,  *'the  man  who  was 
greedy  as  hell,  insatiable  as  death." 

The  date  of  the  prophecy  depends  on  the  iden- 
tification of  this  tyrant  of  the  nations.  If  it  is 
Babylon,  the  oracle  must  be  considered  later  than 
i.  5-11,  which  greets  the  rise  of  the  Babylonian 
power  to  execute  God's  judgment  on  the  word. 
An  ingenius  solution  of  the  difficulty  has  been 
proposed,  viz.,  to  transfer  i.  5-11  from  c.  1  to  a 
place  after  ii.  4,  and  see  in  it  the  contents  of  the 


204  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

vision  spoken  of  in  ii.  3:  the  Babylonians  would 
then  be  the  ministers  of  God's  avenging  justice  on 
the  Assyrian  robbers  of  the  world,  and  the  whole 
might  have  been  uttered  about  615  b.  c.  All  parts 
of  these  chapters  abound  in  reminiscences  of  the 
eighth-century  prophets;  the  resemblances  to 
Jeremiah  may  be  explained  by  the  contempora- 
neousness of  the  authors. 

Habakkuk  3,  entitled  "A  Prayer  by  Habakkuk 
the  Prophet,"  with  a  musical  direction  following, 
as  in  the  Psalms,  is  in  fact  a  psalm,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  musical  directions,  implying  liturgical 
use,  suggests  that  it  once  stood  in  a  hymn  book 
like  the  Psalter.  It  is  a  fine  ode,  by  an  author 
well  read  in  the  classic  literature  of  his  nation. 
The  theophany  (iii.  2  ff.)  is  indebted  to  Exod. 
xxxiii.  2  ff.  and  Judg.  v.  4  ff .  God  comes  in  all 
his  awfulness,  marching  through  the  earth  in  in- 
dignation, threshing  the  nations  in  anger,  going 
out  to  war  for  the  deliverance  of  his  people,  the 
deliverance  of  his  anointed  (sc.  nation;  a  late  use 
of  the  epithet) .  The  occasion  of  the  ode,  if  it  had 
any  other  than  a  literary  reason  for  being,  is  in- 
discoverable,  and  of  its  age  no  more  can  confi- 
dently be  said  than  that  it  belongs  with  the  Psalms 
of  the  Persian  period.  It  is  imitated  in  Ps.  77. 
The  title  ascribing  it  to  Habakkuk  the  prophet  is 
of  no  greater  authority  than  the  ascription  Pss.  146- 
148  in  the  Greek  Bible  to  Haggai  and  Zechariah. 

Zephaniah 

The  pedigree  of  Zephaniah  is  carried  back  to 
his  great-great-grandfather,  Hezekiah.     As  such 


MINOR  PROPHETS  205 

genealogical  proper  names  have  seldom  more  than 
three  terms,  it  has  been  conjectured  that  the 
particular  reason  for  adducing  two  extra  gen- 
erations here  was  that  the  prophet  boasted 
royal  blood  —  Hezekiah  was  the  king  of  that 
name.  The  thing  is  possible,  though  the  gener- 
ations are  somewhat  rapid;  the  parallel  royal 
line  counts  four.  It  would  be  a  romantic  touch 
if  the  prophet  was  a  great-grand-nephew  of 
Manasseh,  and  a  second  cousin  of  Josiah,  of 
the  manners  and  morals  of  whose  courts  he  has 
so  bad  an  opinion. 

The  title  says  that  he  prophesied  in  the  reign 
of  Josiah,  and  with  this  the  tenor  of  a  large  part  of 
the  book  agrees.  Like  the  earliest  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  (Jer.  1-6),  Zephaniah's  Day  of  the  Lord 
is  inspired  by  the  irruption  of  the  Scythian  hordes 
which  threatened  to  engulf  the  civilized  nations  of 
western  Asia  in  a  common  ruin,  as  the  Mongol  and 
Turkish  hordes,  pouring  out  of  the  same  cradle 
of  the  commissioned  races,  the  scourges  of  God, 
did  successively  in  later  ages.  For  Judah  it  is 
the  day  of  reckoning  for  the  sins  which  made  the 
reign  of  Manasseh  a  by-word  with  prophets  and 
historians,  and  which  went  on  unrestrained 
through  the  short  years  of  his  successor  and  the 
minority  of  Josiah  down  to  the  reforms  of  his 
eighteenth  year.  Nowhere  is  the  state  of  things 
in  that  three  quarters  of  a  century  more  clearly 
exposed  than  in  the  first  oracle  of  Zephaniah. 

The  second  chapter  holds  out  the  possibility 
that  repentance  may  still  save  Judah;  the  wave 
of  invasion  has  taken,  as  we  know  from  historical 


206  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

sources  it  did,  the  way  by  the  coast,  bringing 
calamity  on  the  PhiHstine  cities.  It  surged  on  to 
the  very  frontier  of  Egypt,  where  it  was  stayed, 
more  Hkely  by  the  payment  of  a  great  indemnity 
than  by  force  of  arms,  and  rolled  back  whence  it 
came.  Zephaniah  sees  the  storm  break  over  As- 
syria, and  predicts  the  total  destruction  of  the 
proud  city  of  Nineveh  which  had  so  long  said  in 
her  heart,  *'  I,  and  none  beside  me."  Several  verses 
in  this  chapter  are  suspected  of  being  later  ampli- 
fications, viz.  ii.  7^  (Judah  profits  by  the  ruin  of 
the  Philistine  plain;  vs.  7^  connects  directly  with 
vs.  6),  and  especially  the  oracles  against  Moab  and 
Ammon,  which  accuse  them  of  their  enmity  to 
Judah  in  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  a  genera- 
tion after  Zephaniah. 

The  first  oracle  in  Zeph.  3  is  incomplete;  the 
original  conclusion,  a  sentence  of  doom  upon 
Judah,  the  only  imaginable  sequel  to  vss.  1-7,  is 
supplanted  by  the  inconsequent  pouring  out  of 
God's  fury  on  the  nations,  whereupon  the  heathen 
are  converted,  the  dispersion  returns,  and,  puri- 
fied and  chastened,  the  remnant  of  Judah  enjoys 
a  modest  golden  age  (iii.  8-13).  The  book  closes 
in  a  more  jubilant  salutation  of  the  good  time 
coming  (iii.  14-20). 

Thus  in  Zephaniah,  as  in  so  many  other  pro- 
phetic books,  all  turns  out  well  in  the  end;  but 
as  in  most  of  the  others,  the  happy  endings  are 
an  afterthought  of  later  generations  for  whom 
the  judgment  was  in  the  past  but  the  golden  age 
not  yet  come. 


MINOR  PROPHETS  207 

Haggai 

Haggai  dates  his  first  revelation  to  the  very 
day  of  the  month  —  a  new  fashion  which  he  and 
his  contemporary  Zechariah  have  —  the  first 
day  of  the  sixth  month  (of  the  Jewish  calendar) 
in  the  second  year  of  Darius  (Hystaspis),  that  is, 
520  B.  c.  He  has  the  word  of  the  Lord  for  Zerub- 
babel,  the  governor  of  Judah,  and  Joshua,  the 
chief  priest,  that  it  is  high  time  to  rebuild  the 
temple;  the  lean  years  they  have  been  having 
are  due  to  God's  displeasure  that  he  is  thus  neg- 
lected. The  civil  and  religious  heads  of  the  com- 
munity stir  up  the  people  and  the  work  begins; 
again  the  exact  date  is  given. 

Three  other  oracles  follow,  all  in  the  same  year. 
The  first  of  these  (ii.  1-9)  encourages  Zerubbabel 
and  the  people  to  more  zeal  by  the  prediction 
that  the  great  crisis  of  history  is  at  hand:  yet  a 
little  while  and  the  Lord  will  shake  the  heavens 
and  the  earth;  he  will  shake  all  the  nations,  and 
the  treasures  of  all  the  nations  shall  flow  to  his 
temple  (cf.  Isa.  Ix.  Off.),  and  God  will  fill  the 
house  with  his  glory.  The  third  (ii.  20-23),  to 
Zerubbabel,  foretells  the  overthrow  and  destruc- 
tion of  the  kingdoms  of  the  nations;  and,  in  pru- 
dently veiled  phrase  —  since  such  great  expecta- 
tions might  have  ill  consequences  if  they  reached 
Persian  ears  —  the  restoration  of  Zerubbabel 
to  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  fulfilling  the  messianic 
predictions  of  earlier  prophets.  The  intervening 
oracle  (ii.  10-10)  is  another  spur  to  zeal  in  re- 
building the  temple. 


208  THE  OLD  TESTx^MENT 

The  immediate  restoration  of  Jewish  nationality 
which  Haggai  and  Zeehariah  so  confidently  fore- 
told was  not  merely  the  expression  of  a  general 
faith  or  the  result  of  studies  in  their  predecessors. 
For  in  reality  God  was  shaking  the  nations;  in 
particular  the  Persian  empire,  newly  made  master 
of  the  world,  was  shaken  to  its  foundations  by  the 
usurpation  of  the  pretended  Smerdis,  the  death 
of  Cambyses,  the  conspiracy  of  the  nobles  against 
Smerdis,  and  the  elevation  of  Darius  to  the  throne. 
In  the  years  when  the  Jewish  prophets  were  mak- 
ing their  predictions,  Darius  was  confronted  by 
formidable  rebellions  in  every  quarter  of  the 
empire  except  the  west.  It  might  well  appear 
to  Haggai  that  the  armies  of  the  nations  were  fall- 
ing every  one  by  the  sword  of  his  fellow. 

In  the  end  Darius  put  down  all  opposition  and 
welded  the  empire  together  more  strongly  than 
ever;  the  brief  dream  of  Jewish  independence 
under  a  Davidic  prince  and  the  brighter  vision  of 
the  golden  age  faded. 


Zeehariah 

Zechariah's  first  oracle  is  dated  in  the  month 
after  that  in  which  Haggai's  first  was  delivered. 
It  is  a  brief  exhortation  to  his  countrymen  to 
repent,  and  not  neglect  the  warnings  of  the  proph- 
ets as  their  fathers  had  done,  to  their  sorrow  when 
the  predicted  judgments  overtook  them  (Zech. 
i.  1-6).  Then  follow,  in  i.  7-vi.  15,  under  the 
common  date  (second  year  of  Darius,  11th  month, 
24th  day),  a  series  of  eight  visions,  the  meaning 


MINOR  PROPHETS  209 

of  which  is  interpreted  to  the  prophet  by  an  angel. 
They  symboHze  the  shattering  of  the  power  of  the 
nations;  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  and  city, 
and  the  golden  age  to  follow;  the  removal  of  the 
sin  of  Judah;  the  recognition  of  the  Messiah 
(Zerubbabel) ;  the  harmony  of  prince  and  priest. 

At  the  end  of  this  group  of  visions  is  a  bit  of 
history  of  high  interest.  A  crown  was  made  of 
gold  and  silver  brought  by  some  representatives 
of  the  Babylonian  Jews,  and  set  by  the  prophet  on 
the  head  of  Zerubbabel,  who  was  saluted  as  *'the 
Scion,"  i.e.  the  Messiah  (Jer.  xxiii.5),  with  the  pre- 
diction that  he  should  rebuild  the  temple,  assume 
majesty,  and  sit  and  rule  upon  his  throne.  The 
coronation,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  was  in  the 
secrecy  of  a  private  house,  and  is  to  be  regarded 
as  a  symbolical  act;  the  Babylonian  envoys  kept 
the  crown  as  a  memento.  But  its  significance  is 
unmistakable. 

The  prediction  was  not  fulfilled.  Whatever 
became  of  Zerubbabel  —  he  disappears  with  this 
scene  —  he  never  wore  a  real  crown  nor  sat  upon 
the  throne  of  his  fathers.  This  has  led  to  more 
than  one  change  in  the  text^  which,  however,  as 
in  many  other  cases,  were  not  suflBciently  thor- 
ough-going to  pass  unnoticed.  First,  the  crown 
is  once  made  plural,  "crowns,'*  as  though  the 
intention  was  to  crown  both  the  prince  and  the 
priest;  when  it  comes  to  the  coronation,  how- 
ever, only  Joshua,  the  high  priest,  receives  the 
honor  (vi.  11).  But  vss.  12,  13^,  which  are  left 
untouched,  can  refer  only  to  Zerubbabel.  Verse 
13^  originally  read,  "and  [Joshua]  shall  be  priest 


210  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

at  his  right  hand  (so  the  Greek  Bible,  instead  of 
"on  his  throne"),  and  there  shall  be  harmony 
between  the  two."  In  vs.  14  there  is  only  one 
crown. 

In  Zech,  7  the  question  is  asked  of  the  prophet 
by  some  pilgrims  from  Bethel,  whether,  now  that 
the  temple  was  rebuilding,  they  should  continue 
to  keep  the  fast  for  the  burning  of  the  temple 
in  the  fifth  month ;  his  response,  that  what 
God  wants  of  them  is  not  fasting  but  justice, 
charity,  compassion,  that  none  should  oppress 
his  neighbor  nor  devise  evil  against  him,  is  quite 
in  the  spirit  of  the  earlier  prophets  to  whom  he 
appeals. 

He  goes  on,  in  c.  8,  to  picture  the  coming 
golden  age,  when  the  fasts  shall  all  be  turned 
into  cheerful  feasts,  a  prophecy  which  is  one  of 
the  finest  of  its  kind  in  the  Old  Testament  and  a 
fitting  crown  to  the  book. 

The  prophecies  of  Zechariah  (cc.  1-8)  are 
definitely  dated;  they  spring  out  of  a  definite 
historical  and  religious  situation  which  is  every- 
where apparent  and  consistent.  Not  so  the 
chapters  which  follow  (cc.  9-14).  The  titles 
(ix.  1;  xii.  1)  have  a  different  form  ("Burdens"), 
the  situations  which  give  their  background  to 
the  oracles  are  wholly  unlike  that  which  stands 
out  so  clearly  in  Haggai  and  Zechariah;  the 
character  of  the  prophecies,  with  their  affected 
obscurity,  easily  penetrable,  doubtless,  to  con- 
temporaries, but  impenetrable  to  us  who  have 
not  the  historical  key,  and  their  apocalyptic 
eschatology,  are  in  strong  contrast  to  the  manner 


MINOR  PROPHETS  211 

of  Zechariah;    the  evidence  of  diction  confirms 
that  of  situation  and  content. 

It  has  therefore  long  been  recognized  that 
none  of  these  prophecies  can  be  by  the  author 
of  Zech.  1-8:  they  are  anonymous  oracles  which 
have  been  appended  at  the  close  of  his  book  or  of 
the  Book  of  the  Minor  Prophets.  _  They  are  not 
all  by  the  same  author:  cc.  12-14  contain  two 
pictures  (xii.  1-xiii.  6;  xiv.  1-21)  of  the  final 
onset  of  the  heathen  on  Jerusalem,  their  destruc- 
tion, and  the  golden  age  of  pious  prosperity 
that  ensues,  variations  of  EzekieFs  original  in 
the  great  prophecy  of  Gog  (Ezek.  38-39)  which 
gave  the  scheme  for  all  subsequent  revelations 
on  the  last  times.  A  notable  difference  between 
the  two  pictures  is  that  in  Zech.  12  the  heathen 
are  destroyed  by  the  clans  of  Judah,  who  deliver 
Jerusalem;  while  in  c.  14  Jerusalem  is  taken  by 
the  heathen  and  subjected  to  all  the  horrors  of 
a  sack,  half  of  its  inhabitants  being  carried  into 
slavery,  before  Jehovah  himself,  descending  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  fights  against  the  nations, 
and  cleaves  the  mount  itself  in  twain. 

In  cc.  xii.  1-xiii.  6  concrete  features  of  the 
author's  time  are  probably  discernible,  in  the  fact, 
for  instance,  that  Judah  (that  is,  the  inhabitants 
of  the  other  towns  and  the  country)  besieges 
Jerusalem  in  company  with  the  neighboring 
heathen  peoples,  and  in  the  striking  animosity 
displayed  toward  the  prophets,  who  are  in  the 
same  condemnation  with  the  idols  and  arouse 
much  intenser  feeling  (xiii.  2-6).  Our  ignorance 
of  the  internal  history  of  the  Jewish  community 


212  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

for  two  or  three  centuries  is,  however,  so  com- 
plete that  these  allusions  furnish  us  no  clue. 

In  Zech.  9-11  also  there  are  two  sections,  viz. 
ix.  1-xi.  3,  and  xi.  4-17  +  xiii.  7-9.  The  age  of 
these  can  be  fixed  with  greater  confidence  by 
the  external  historical  situation.  The  heathen 
power  the  overthrow  of  which  ushers  in  the 
golden  age  is  named,  in  ix.  13,  the  Greeks.  Egypt 
and  Syria  ("Assyria"),  that  is,  the  kingdoms  of 
the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucids,  shall  be  brought 
low  (x.  11).  "The  land  of  Hadrach,"  to  which 
the  first  oracle  is  directed,  is  in  all  probability 
the  region  of  Antioch,  the  Seleucid  capital.  The 
bad  "shepherds'*  of  cc.  11;  xiii.  7-9,  who  are  over 
the  flock  of  God,  are  very  good  likenesses  of  the 
Jewish  high  priests  of  the  Greek  time,  though 
it  is  impossible  to  identify  the  concrete  historical 
persons  and  events  of  c.  11.  Taking  all  together, 
we  shall  not  go  amiss  in  ascribing  these  to  the 
early  part  of  the  third  century  b.  c.  —  say  be- 
tween the  year  200,  when  Judaea  came  under 
Seleucid  rule,  and  the  religious  persecution  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  and  the  Maccabsean  re- 
volt, to  neither  of  which  is  there  any  allusion 
in  the  chapters.  Chapters  12-14  may  perhaps 
be  put  in  the  century  before. 

Malachi 

A  third  appendix  to  the  Book  of  Zechariah 
is  the  anonymous  book  which  we  call  Malachi. 
The  earliest  title,  "The  Burden  of  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  against  Israel,"  is  word  for  word  the 


MINOR  PROPHETS  213 

same  as  that  in  Zech.  xii.  1  (cf.  ix.  1),  and  doubt- 
less was  prefixed  by  the  same  editor.  Subse- 
quently, perhaps  to  give  the  book  an  independent 
status  and  thus  round  out  the  number  of  the 
Minor  Prophets  to  twelve,  the  words  *'by  *My 
Messenger'"  (Heb.  malaki;  iii.  1  f.)  were  added. 
Jewish  tradition  in  later  times  identified  this 
messenger  with  Ezra.  In  the  versions  the  word 
was  naturally  taken  for  a  proper  name. 

The  book  consists  of  two  parts,  Mai.  i.  2-ii.  9, 
which  from  i.  6  on  is  addressed  to  the  priests, 
and  ii.  10-iv.  8,  to  the  people  at  large.  The 
priests  treat  the  worship  in  the  temple  with 
professional  disrespect,  under  which  lurks  an 
equally  professional  skepticism.  Any  kind  of 
blemished  or  diseased  victim  is  good  enough  — 
the  prophet  invites  them  to  make  such  a  scurvy 
gift  to  the  governor!  The  perpetual  routine  of 
sacred  services  they  find  tiresome.  They  are 
no  less  negligent  in  their  other  great  function  as 
the  religious  teachers  and  guides  of  the  people. 
The  Tora,  that  is,  the  revealed  will  of  God,  is 
committed  to  them,  and  they,  degenerate  suc- 
cessors of  the  faithful  priests  in  the  good  old 
times,  have  not  only  themselves  abandoned  the 
right  way,  but  have  caused  many  to  fall  by  their 
false  instructions.  They  have  earned  the  con- 
tempt in  which  men  hold  them.  The  curse  of 
God  is  on  them. 

One  of  the  most  notable  words  in  the  Bible 
stands  in  this  indignant  denunciation  (Mai.  i. 
11  f.).  Jehovah's  own  priests  in  his  own  temple 
treat  his  worship  with  contempt;  he  refuses  their 


214  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

offerings:  "For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the 
setting,  my  name  is  great  among  the  nations, 
and  in  every  place  pure  sacrifices  are  burnt  to 
my  name  among  the  nations,  saith  Jehovah  of 
Hosts;  but  ye  profane  it  by  thinking  that  the 
table  of  Jehovah  may  be  polluted  and  his  food 
despised."  That  the  sacrifices  of  the  heathen 
may  be  "pure"  sacrifices,  though  not  according 
to  the  Mosaic  rite,  because  all  true  worship  is 
the  worship  of  the  true  God,  is  a  conception  quite 
unparalleled  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  author's 
polemic  against  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  has 
doubtless  made  him  say  more  than  he  would 
have  stood  by  as  a  dogmatic  statement;  more, 
indeed,  than  any  church  has  ever  been  ready  to 
acknowledge,  but  it  was  fitting  that  it  should  be 
said,  for  it  is  the  final  consequence  of  the  ethical 
conception  of  religion  of  which  the  Hebrew 
prophets  from  Amos  on  are  the  exponents. 

Of  the  remaining  oracles,  one  (Mai.  iii.  6-12) 
urges  to  the  honest  consecration  of  the  tithes 
(dues  to  the  temple);  another  (ii.  10-16),  as 
commonly  interpreted,  condemns  the  marriages 
with  heathen  women  which  so  disturbed  the  soul 
of  Nehemiah  and  Ezra,  and  especially  the  divorce 
of  native  waives  to  take  foreign  ones;  but  the 
language  should  perhaps  rather  be  taken  as 
figurative  for  foreign  worship.  The  two  remain- 
ing prophecies  (ii.  17-iii.  5;  iii.  13-iv.  3)  are 
addressed  to  such  as  thought  that  God  did  not 
trouble  himself  about  men's  affairs:  the  long 
threatened  day  of  doom  gave  no  sign  of  coming, 
nor  was  the  promised  reward  of  serving  God 


MINOR  PROPHETS  215 

bestowed.  The  prophet  declares  that  the  Day 
will  come,  sudden  and  terrible,  and  the  ungodly 
will  get  their  deserts.  The  last  verses  (iv.  4-6) 
are  not  improbably  an  addition  by  an  editorial 
hand. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

PSALMS.      LAMENTATIONS 

The  Book  of  Psalms  counts  one  hundred  and 
fifty  hymns,  and  this  evidently  by  design,  for 
the  Greek  Version,  which  sometimes  unites  in 
one  what  are  two  psalms  in  the  Hebrew  and  di- 
vides one  Hebrew  psalm  into  two,  comes  out 
with  the  same  number.  It  is  divided  into  five 
books,  as  is  indicated  in  the  Revised  English 
Version,  viz.  Book  I,  Pss.  1-41;  Book  II,  Pss. 
42-72;  Book  III,  Pss.  73-89;  Book  IV,  Pss. 
90-106;  Book  V,  Pss.  107-150,  each  book 
ending  with  a  liturgical  doxology.  The  rabbis 
were  probably  right  in  the  opinion  that  this  five- 
fold division  was  made  in  imitation  of  the  five 
books  of  the  Pentateuch,  but  in  some  cases, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  limits  correspond  to  those  of 
older  separate  books. 

The  Psalter  has  not  inaptly  been  called  the 
hymn  book  of  the  second  temple.  We  learn 
from  Jewish  tradition  that  certain  psalms  were 
used  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Herodian  temple  on 
certain  days  or  at  certain  seasons,  and  to  many 
of  them  musical  or  liturgical  directions  are  pre- 
fixed and  interludes  are  noted  ("Selah"),  from 
which,  apart  from  tradition,  such  a  use  would 
be  inferred.  It  is  evident  from  the  familiarity 
216 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS        217 

with  the  Psalms  which  is  shown  in  the  New 
Testament  and  in  contemporary  Jewish  writings, 
both  Greek  and  Hebrew,  that,  Hke  our  hymn 
books,  the  Psalter  was  largely  used  for  private 
devotion  and  edification. 

The  poems  contained  in  the  Psalter  are  from 
different  ages  and  authors,  and  of  widely  diverse 
religious  worth  and  poetical  excellence.  Some 
of  them  are  unsurpassed  in  the  religious  literature 
of  the  world;  others  are  the  tedious  production 
of  authors  who,  like  so  many  hymnists  of  all 
climes,  were  neither  born  nor  made  poets. 
Thanks  to  the  translators,  such  pieces  are  a 
great  deal  better,  so  far  as  expression  goes,  in  the 
Authorized  English  Version  or  in  Luther's  than 
the  original. 

A  modern  hymn  book  is  seldom,  if  ever,  a 
fresh  compilation  from  the  sources;  it  is  habit- 
ually made  up  from  collections  already  in  use, 
with  the  addition,  perhaps,  of  the  editor's  glean- 
ings from  the  sources,  or  of  recent  poems.  The 
names  of  the  collections  thus  used  may  be  given, 
and  the  names  of  the  authors  —  often  taken 
along  without  verification.  Editors  of  hymn 
books  have  also  generally  allowed  themselves 
great  liberties  with  the  text  of  hymns,  altering 
them  to  suit  their  own  taste  or  the  religious  and 
theological  idiosyncrasies  of  their  sect;  abridging, 
transposing,  expanding,  without  scruple;  and 
only  in  very  modern  times  has  a  tardily  awakened 
literary  conscience  constrained  them  to  give 
notice  of  such  changes.  In  this  way  mediaeval 
Catholic  poets  are  made  to  sing  good  Protestant 


218  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

songs,  or  Calvinists  and  Methodists  to  drop  their 
shibboleths  and  express  themselves  in  a  manner 
acceptable  to  Unitarians.    The  familiar  hymn, 

*'  O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing  my  dear  Redeemer's 
praise," 

has  been  adapted  to  Buddhist  use  as, 

*'0   for  a  thousand   tongues   to    sing  my   holy    Buddha's 
praise. 
The  glories  of  my  teacher  great,  the  triumphs  of  his  grace," 

with  similar  changes  throughout,  and  if  we  did 
not  know  the  Christian  hymn,  we  might  take 
the  author  for  a  good  Shin-shu  Buddhist,  though 
an  indifferent  poet. 

The  editors  of  the  Psalter  proceeded  in  the 
same  way,  and  the  older  collections  on  which 
they  worked  can  in  part  be  recognized.  It  is 
observed  that  Books  II  and  III  of  the  Psalter 
(Pss.  42-89),  or,  more  exactly,  Pss.  42-83,  must 
once  have  formed  a  collection  by  themselves, 
whose  editor  was  averse  to  the  use  of  the  proper 
name  Jehovah,  and  accordingly  altered  the  text 
of  the  hymns  where  this  name  occurred  by 
substituting  the  appellative  God  (Elohim), 
giving  rise  to  such  strange  expressions  as  "O 
God,  my  God."  Thus  Ps.  53  is  the  same  with 
Ps.  14,  but  wherever  Jehovah  stands  in  Ps.  14, 
"God"  takes  its  place  in  Ps.  53;  Ps.  70  is  merely 
an  extract  from  Ps.  40  (vss.  13-17)  with  the  same 
change.  In  the  latter,  however,  copyists,  influ- 
enced by  the  parallel  passage,  have  restored 
"Jehovah"  in  one  (Greek)  or  two  (Hebrew) 
places,  as  they  have  done  in  other  of  these  psalms. 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS         219 

This  occurrence  of  the  same  hymn  in  two  parts 
of  the  Psalter,  of  which  another  instance  is  Ps. 
108  (made  up  of  parts  of  two  psalms  in  the 
elohistic  book,  Ivii.  7-11,  and  Ix.  5-12),  is  itself 
presumptive  evidence  that  these  parts  once 
existed  separately.  At  the  time  when  the 
musical  directions  were  prefixed  to  the  psalms, 
the  last  two  books  (Pss.  90-150)  seem  not  to 
have  been  included  in  the  temple  hymn  book; 
for  these  directions,  scattered  through  Pss.  1-89, 
are  lacking  from  that  point  on,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  a  larger  proportion  of  the  psalms 
in  Pss.  90-150  were  manifestly  composed  for 
public  worship  than  in  Pss.  1-89. 

The  titles  of  Psalms  give  the  names  of  other 
collections  from  which  individual  psalms  were 
taken.  Thus  twelve  psalms,  Pss.  42,  44-49,  84, 
85,  87,  88,  are  hymns  or  songs  of  the  Korahites, 
and  eleven,  Pss.  50,  73-83,  of  Asaph,  who  were 
according  to  the  Chronicler  —  a  good  authority 
on  the  worship  of  his  time  —  families,  or  heredi- 
tary guilds,  of  temple  musicians,  and  seem,  in 
this  capacity,  to  have  had  special  hymn  books 
containing  psalms  which  they  sang,  and  which 
may  also  have  been  composed  by  members  of  the 
guild.  The  fact  that  the  Korahite  and  Asaphite 
psalms  are  not  scattered  through  the  present 
Psalter,  but  appear  in  groups,  and  only  in  the 
elohistic  hymn  book  (Pss.  42-89),  confirms  this 
view.  When  they  were  incorporated  in  the  col- 
lection, the  source  was  indicated  by  prefixing 
the  name  of  the  guild  book  to  the  individual 
psalms. 


220  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Another  group  of  fifteen  psalms  (Pss.  120- 
134)  bear  in  their  titles,  "The  Song  of  the  As- 
cents," a  phrase  which,  by  the  irregularity  of 
its  form,  shows  that  it  was  transferred  mechan- 
ically from  the  title  of  the  collection  ("  The  Songs 
of  the  Ascents")  to  the  individual  poems.  The 
ancient  interpretation  makes  the  "ascents"  the 
fifteen  steps,  or  ascending  platforms,  on  which 
the  levitical  orchestra  stood  at  the  festival  of 
the  water-drawing  on  the  evening  after  the  first 
day  of  Tabernacles  (hence  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion, Song  of  Degrees,  i.  e.  Steps).  We  need  not 
discuss  the  question;  that  these  psalms  consti- 
tute a  liturgical  unit  selected  for  a  specific 
ceremony  is  plain. 

A  considerable  number  of  psalms  have  loosely 
prefixed  to  them  the  words  Hallelu  Jah  (Praise 
ye  Jah),  which  in  the  Hebrew  text  are  frequently 
found  at  the  end,  having  been  erroneously  carried 
back  from  the  beginning  of  a  following  psalm. 
When  this  displacement  (which  is  later  than 
the  Greek  translation)  is  corrected,  the  Hal- 
lelujah psalms  are  105-107,  111-118,  135,  136, 
146-150.  Here  also  a  liturgical  collection  is  natu- 
rally inferred.  Jewish  tradition  informs  us  about 
the  use  of  the  "Hallel"  (Pss.  113-118)  and  the 
"Great  Hallel"  (Ps.  136)  at  the  festivals,  and 
the  name  Hallel  is  also  sometimes  given  to  Pss. 
146-148.  Both  the  Hallels  and  the  Songs  of 
Degrees,  it  will  be  observed,  are  in  the  last  of 
the  three  parts  of  the  Psalter  (Pss.  90-150). 

Of  greater  interest  is  the  large  collection  of 
psalms   which   bear   individually    the   name    of 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS        221 

David.  This  name  is  found  in  the  titles  of  all  the 
psalms  in  Book  I  (Pss.  1-41),  except  Pss.  1  and  2, 
10  (properly  a  part  of  9,  as  in  the  Greek  Bible), 
and  33  (in  the  Greek  Bible  Davidic) ;  further,  in 
Book  II,  two  groups,  Pss.  51-65,  68-70,  and 
thereafter,  scattering,  Pss.  86,  101,  103,  108-110, 
122,  124,  131,  133,  138-145  —  73  psalms  in  all, 
or  almost  half  the  Psalter.  Manuscripts  of  the 
Greek  Bible  add  a  varying  number  of  others,  and 
other  versions  do  the  same. 

In  the  light  of  the  phenomena  we  have  already 
observed,  we  may  confidently  infer  that  there 
was  once  a  collection  of  religious  lyrics  bearing 
some  such  title  as  "Hymns  of  David."  So  long 
as  this  book  had  a  separate  existence,  the  name 
would  naturally  not  be  repeated  at  the  head  of  the 
individual  poems  in  it;  such  repetition  became 
necessary,  however,  when  psalms  from  this  book 
were  taken  up  into  a  larger  hymn  book  contain- 
ing not  only  psalms  from  the  Korahite  and 
Asaphite  collections  but  many  anonymous  hymns; 
just  as  the  name  of  Charles  Wesley  would  be  at- 
tached to  one  of  his  hymns  only  when  it  was  taken 
out  of  his  own  volume  and  included  in  a  com- 
posite hymn  book.  By  good  fortune  we  have 
the  colophon  of  this  Davidic  Psalter  in  Ps.  Ixxii. 
20,  in  the  words  of  a  scribe:  "The  Prayers  (an 
older  name  for  Psalms)  of  David  son  of  Jesse 
are  finished,"  that  is,  the  roll  containing  them  is 
copied  to  the  end  —  a  very  common  Oriental 
form  of  colophon.  Curiously  enough,  the  hymn  to 
which  this  note  is  annexed  is  said  in  its  title  to  be 
by  Solomon,  to  whom  Ps.  127  (one  of  the  Songs 


222  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  Degrees)  is  similarly  attributed.  In  both  cases 
the  ground  of  the  ascription  is  plain:  the  editor 
thought  that  Ps.  cxxvii.  1  referred  to  the  building 
of  the  temple,  while  the  prayer  for  wisdom  with 
which  Ps.  72  begins  suggested  to  him  Solomon's 
dream,  1  Kgs.  3. 

From  this  Davidic  hymn  book  came  what  is 
now  the  first  book  of  the  Psalter  entire,  except 
Ps.  1  and  probably  2;  further  the  groups  in 
Book  II  (51-65,  68-70,  with  72),  which  probably 
stood  immediately  after  Ps.  41.  For  it  will  be 
noted  that  the  second  (elohistic)  part  of  the  pres- 
ent Psalter  (Pss.  42-89)  is  made  up  of  Korahite, 
Asaphite,  and  Davidic  psalms,  and  that  in 
their  present  position  the  Davidic  psalms,  say 
Pss.  51-72,  are  thrust  into  the  otherwise  solid 
group  of  Asaphite  hymns  Pss.  50  .  .  .  73-83. 
Further,  the  transposition  of  the  Davidic  psalms 
to  the  beginning  of  the  book  would  bring  the 
hymns  of  the  guilds  together.  The  elohistic  re- 
cension does  not  extend  consistently  beyond  Ps. 
83;  and  Pss.  84-89  (Korahite)  may  therefore  be 
regarded  as  a  supplementary  extract  from  the 
guild  book. 

The  titles  of  several  of  the  Davidic  psalms 
specify  the  occasion  and  circumstances  in  which 
the  poem  was  composed;  these  historical  notes 
are  especially  numerous  in  the  group  Pss.  51-72 
(see  Pss.  51,  52,  54,  56,  57,  59,  60,  63),  but  occur 
also  in  the  First  Book  (Pss.  3,  7,  18,  34),  and  in 
Ps.  142  (cf.  Ps.  57).  The  incidents  referred  to  are, 
w4th  one  exception,  all  narrated  in  the  Books  of 
Samuel.    There  is  no  reason  to  imagine  that  the 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS         223 

editor  had  any  tradition  about  the  origin  of 
these  particular  poems,  much  less  authentic  in- 
formation on  the  subject.  Precisely  as  in  the 
ascription  of  Pss.  72  and  127  to  Solomon,  he  com- 
bined what  he  took  to  be  allusions  to  a  historical 
situation  in  the  poems  with  the  history  as  he 
read  it.  Psalm  51,  for  example,  is  a  confession  of 
deep  sinfulness,  and  seems  to  specify  blood-guilt 
(vs.  14) .  When  had  David  reason  to  express  him- 
self in  this  manner?  Clearly  after  his  adultery 
with  Bathsheba  and  the  murder  of  Uriah.  It  is  a 
very  familiar  procedure.  Modern  commentators 
have  made  many  similar  guesses,  but  nobody 
attaches  any  authority  to  them. 

Whether  the  scattered  Davidic  psalms  in  the 
last  part  of  the  Psalter  (Pss.  90-150)  are  a  glean- 
ing from  the  Davidic  hymn  book  of  poems  which 
had  not  been  included  by  previous  editors  or 
come  from  some  other  source  is  uncertain;  the 
latter  is  the  more  probable  hypothesis. 

The  Psalter,  in  the  form  in  which  we  have  it, 
is  one  of  the  latest  books  in  the  Old  Testament, 
for  it  contains  poems  in  which  the  religious  per- 
secution of  Antiochus  IV  and  the  Maccabsean 
struggle  are  clearly  reflected,  and  very  likely 
events  still  further  down  in  the  second  century 
B.  c.  This  was  shown  by  an  acute  critic  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century  A.  D.,  and  in  the 
Reformation  century  John  Calvin  rightly  referred 
Pss.  44  and  74  to  the  Maccabaean  times,  and  ad- 
mitted the  same  possibility  for  Ps.  79.  All  these 
are  from  the  Korahite  and  Asaphite  collections 
included  in  the  elohistic  hymn  book,  which  it- 


224  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

self  is  not  the  youngest  of  the  sources  of  our 
Psalter. 

Numerous  other  Psalms  are,  with  greater  or 
less  probability,  assigned  to  the  same  age;  thus, 
Ps.  149,  where  the  saints,  with  the  high  praises  of 
God  in  their  mouths  and  a  two-edged  sword  in 
their  hands,  execute  judgment  on  the  heathen, 
is  singularly  apt  to  the  Maccabsean  victories. 
Psalm  110  ("Davidic")  most  naturally  is  under- 
stood as  one  of  the  Asmonsean  princes,  since  in 
them  alone  priesthood  and  royalty  were  united. 

There  are,  however,  other  and  more  conclusive 
criteria  than  references  to  historical  events  or 
persons.  The  religious  situation  in  the  Jewish 
community  reflected  in  very  many  of  the  psalms 
is  that  of  the  Persian  and  Greek  period,  not  that 
of  the  days  of  the  kingdom.  The  strife  of  parties 
or  of  classes,  on  one  side  the  righteous,  the  pious, 
the  poor,  for  whom  the  psalmists  speak,  on  the 
other,  the  wicked,  the  ungodly,  the  rich  and  the 
great;  here  those  whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of 
God  (religion),  there  those  who  contemn  it  and 
pursue  evil  ways  regardless  of  its  precepts  and 
prohibitions,  is  a  new  condition,  not  in  the  behav- 
ior of  the  wicked,  but  in  the  self^consciousness  of 
the  pious,  who  feel  themselves  a  distinct  class  and 
are  evidently  crystallizing  into  a  party  or  a  sect. 

The  religious  conceptions  and  the  conception 
of  religion  are  drawn  chiefly  from  Jeremiah  and 
the  Deuteronomists,  and  from  Isaiah  40  ff.,  but 
on  the  subjective  side  of  religion,  piety,  the  best 
of  the  Psalms  represent  a  more  advanced  stage 
than  the  prophets  of  the  seventh  and  sixth  cen- 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS         225 

turies.  The  hopes  of  the  future  of  God's  people 
and  of  the  world  run  with  the  prophets  of  the  Per- 
sian period  and  the  contemporary  anonymous  and 
editorial  additions  to  the  older  prophetic  books. 
That  the  long  rehearsals  of  the  ancient  history, 
like  Pss.  78, 105, 106,  or  eulogies  of  the  law  such  as 
Ps.  119,  or  litanies  of  the  fashion  of  Ps.  136,  be- 
long to  a  stage  in  the  history  of  the  liturgy  such 
as  rouses  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Chronicler  is  also 
apparent.  The  evidence  of  language  tends  the 
same  way.  Fine  hymns  were  written  even  at  a 
late  time;  but  on  a  large  part  of  the  psalms  the 
decadence  has  set  its  mark. 

Such  is  the  impression  the  Psalter  makes  as  a 
whole,  and  it  indicates  that  not  only  is  the  ex- 
isting collection  late,  but  that  most  of  the  hymns 
in  it  were  comparatively  modern  when  they  were 
brought  together.  This  is  what  would  be  ex- 
pected in  a  hymn  book,  which  for  devotional  even 
more  than  for  liturgical  use,  needs  to  express  and 
nurture  the  type  of  piety  prevalent  in  its  own  time 
and  circle.  Protestant  hymn  books  fifty  years 
ago,  outside  the  Anglican  communion,  had  hardly 
any  hymns  in  them  more  than  a  couple  of  hundred 
years  old,  except  versified  translations  of  the 
Psalms,  modernized  and  Christianized  in  the 
operation. 

It  would  be  going  much  beyond  the  evidence 
to  say  there  were  no  psalms  in  the  Psalter  that 
were  composed  in  the  days  of  the  kingdom;  there 
may  be  a  considerable  number.  But  the  proof 
that  any  particular  psalm  came  from  that  period 
is  difficult  and  seldom  very  convincing.    This  is 


226  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

true  even  of  the  psalms  which  speak  of  the  king; 
for,  aside  from  the  impossibihty  of  deciding  in 
some  instances  whether  a  reigning  king  is  meant 
or  the  king  of  the  good  time  coming  (Messiah),  a 
foreign  king  may  sometimes  be  in  mind  (Ps.  45 
is  so  interpreted  by  many),  or  an  Asmonaean  king. 


Lamentations 

The  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  586  b.  c.  is  the  subject 
of  five  poems  of  considerable  length  which  to- 
gether make  the  Book  of  Lamentations.  The 
mistaken  opinion  that  the  prophet  Jeremiah  was 
the  author  caused  this  book  to  be  put  immediately 
after  Jeremiah  in  the  Christian  Bible,  with  an 
introduction  explicitly  attributing  the  poems,  or 
the  first  of  them,  to  the  prophet.  In  the  Hebrew 
Bible  the  book  stands  among  the  miscellaneous 
Scriptures.  The  first  four  poems  are  in  the 
Hebrew  elegiac  meter,  the  verse  used  for  dirges, 
the  characteristic  of  which  is  that  each  line  is 
divided  by  a  caesura  into  unequal  parts,  oftenest 
in  the  ratio  of  three  to  two,  as  in  Amos  v.  1. 

Fallen  no  more  to  rise  |  is  Israel's  daughter! 
Prostrate  to  earth  she  lies,  |  no  one  to  lift  her. 

In  Lamentations  1-4  this  is  combined  with  an  al- 
phabetic acrostic.  In  cc.  1  and  2  the  poem  con- 
sists of  twenty-two  tiercets,  the  first  line  of  each 
beginning  with  a  letter  of  the  alphabet  in  order; 
c.  4,  of  as  many  couplets;  while  in  c.  3  each  line 
of  the  tiercet  begins  with  the  proper  letter.  Chap- 
ter 5  is  neither  alphabetic  nor  in  elegiac  meter. 


PSALMS.    LAMENTATIONS.  227 

The  alphabetic  artifice  is  not  uncommon  with  He- 
brew poets,  the  most  elaborate  example  being 
Ps.  119,  where  in  stanzas  of  seven  verses  each 
line  of  the  stanza  begins  with  A,  B,  G,  D,  and 
so  on. 

The  five  Lamentations  differ  considerably  in 
character  and  poetic  merit.  Chapters  2  and  4 
are  distinctly  superior  to  the  rest,  and  describe 
the  agony  of  Jerusalem  in  vivid  and  moving 
images;  peculiarly  direct  and  poignant  is  c.  5; 
while  c.  3  has  more  the  character  of  a  psalm. 

The  poems  are  not  all  by  the  same  author. 
Those  which  seem  to  stand  nearest  to  the  catas- 
trophe (cc.  2  and  4  at  least)  were  probably  written 
no  very  long  time  after  it;  the  others  perhaps  in 
the  following  generation.  There  is  nothing  in 
them  that  would  lead  us  to  think  of  Jeremiah  as 
the  author.  Perhaps  the  statement  of  the  Chron- 
icler that  Jeremiah  made  a  dirge  for  King  Josiah 
which  was  written  among  the  Lamentations  and 
recited  in  later  times  by  the  professional  singers 
of  dirges  may  imply  that  he  ascribed  one  of  the 
poems  to  the  prophet.  At  any  rate,  it  became 
"tradition,"  and  has  chiefly  contributed  to  get 
Jeremiah  the  injurious  reputation  of  the  weeping 
prophet. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

PROVERBS 

The  Book  of  Proverbs  bears  the  title  "The 
Proverbs  of  Solomon  son  of  David,  King  of 
Israel."  Other  titles  scattered  through  the  book 
prove  that  it  is  made  up  of  several  collections  of 
proverbs  which  once  circulated  independently. 
Thus  Prov.  10  begins,  *'The  Proverbs  of  Solo- 
mon"; xxii.  17-21  is  an  introduction  inviting  the 
reader  to  give  attention  to  "Sayings  of  Sages," 
and  dwelling  on  the  profit  of  so  doing;  xxiv.  23, 
"These  also  are  by  the  Sages";  xxv.  1,  "These 
also  are  Proverbs  of  Solomon  which  the  men  of 
Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  edited";  xxx.  1,  "The 
Sayings  of  Agur  son  of  Jakeh";  xxxi.  1,  "The 
sayings  of  Lemuel  King  of  Massa  (?),  which  his 
mother  taught  him";  finally,  xxxi.  10-31  is  an 
anonymous  alphabetic  poem  in  praise  of  the  good 
housewife. 

The  inference  of  diverse  origin  drawn  from 
these  titles  is  confirmed  by  diversity  of  charac- 
ter and  form,  and  by  the  repetition  of  proverbs 
in  the  different  sections,  especially  in  Prov.  x.  1- 
xxii.  16  and  cc.  25-29;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
similarity  of  all  parts  of  the  book  in  thought  and 
expression  indicates  that  there  is  among  them 
no  wide  difference  in  time.     The  theme  of  the 

228 


PROVERBS  229 

book  is  "wisdom,"  by  which  is  meant  primarily 
a  practical  wisdom  in  the  conduct  of  individual 
life  under  the  social,  political,  and  economic  con- 
ditions of  the  time.  The  end  is  a  prosperous  and 
happy  life,  and  the  motive  is  enlightened  self- 
interest.  Experience  shows  that  morality  conduces 
to  prosperity  and  happiness,  and  immoral  and 
unsocial  actions  to  the  opposite.  To  inculcate  this 
truth  and  to  apply  it  is  the  aim  of  the  wise,  who 
make  this  knowledge  the  foundation  of  virtue  and 
of  well-being. 

Their  instruction  is  not  given  in  the  form  of  a 
philosophical  ethic,  with  a  discussion  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  highest  good  and  of  the  principles  and 
motives  of  conduct,  but  in  sententious  maxims, 
or  aphorisms,  sometimes  grouped  upon  a  central 
theme,  often  without  any  thread  of  connection. 
Religion  is  affirmed  by  the  most  reflective  of 
these  authors  to  be  the  first  principle  of  wisdom 
(Prov.  i.  7;  ix.  10;  cf.  xv.  33),  but  there  is  no 
appeal  to  a  divine  law  or  to  the  conscience  of  the 
individual;  the  maxims  are  based  on  observation 
and  experience.  The  opposite  of  wisdom  is  folly; 
it  is  an  unintelligent  selfishness  which  ignores  the 
consequences  of  its  course,  and  sooner  or  later 
involves  itself  in  loss  or  ruin.  For  ruin  is  the  end 
of  persistent  folly  as  happiness  is  the  fruit  of  wis- 
dom. This  is  the  order  of  the  world;  God's 
ordering,  no  doubt,  but  working  itself  out  by 
natural  law.  Wise  men  and  fools  are  two  per- 
manent classes  of  men,  divided  by  as  hard  a  line 
as  in  the  Stoic  ethics  is  drawn  between  the  vir- 
tuous man  and  the  rest  of  mankind.     The  au- 


230  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

thors  know  no  degrees  of  wisdom;  they  recognize 
different  kinds  of  folly,  but  no  difference  in  fools. 

The  pictures  of  society  they  draw  are  chiefly 
of  city  life,  with  its  temptations  and  vices,  and 
they  closely  resemble  those  which  Jesus  the  son 
of  Sirach  (Ecclesiasticus)  paints  about  200  B.  c. 
Monotheism  is  taken  for  granted;  among  the 
many  follies  the  sages  condemn,  the  folly  of  poly- 
theism and  idolatry  does  not  appear.  The  national 
particularism  of  the  Jewish  religion  is  nowhere 
in  evidence ;  the  cultus  is  hardly  referred  to,  ex- 
cept to  say  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  wicked  is  an 
abomination,  or  that  justice  is  more  acceptable 
to  the  Lord  than  sacrifice. 

These  features  are  doubtless  due  in  part  to 
the  distinctive  tendencies  of  the  moralists,  but 
they  also  reflect  the  times.  We  find  them  in  Job, 
in  Sirach,  and  in  Ecclesiastes,  other  products 
of  Jewish  "Wisdom"  which  date  from  the  later 
Persian  or  Greek  period;  and  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  this  peculiar  development, 
of  which  we  have  no  trace  earlier,  was  char- 
acteristic of  that  age.  With  this  the  evidence  of 
language  accords. 

Of  the  several  parts  of  the  book,  Prov.  x. 
1-xxii.  16  seem  to  be  the  oldest,  and  may  be 
from  the  Persian  period;  the  following  chapters 
are  later.  So  also  is  Prov.  1-9,  which  may  well 
have  been  written  under  Ptolemaic  rule  (say 
320-200  B.  c),  when  the  Jews  enjoyed  times  of 
peace  and  prosperity.  The  latter  author  treats 
his  topics  more  sustainedly,  though  without 
logical  disposition  or  connection,  in  a  warm  and 


PROVERBS  231 

friendly  tone  such  as  an  experienced  elder  might 
use  toward  a  youth.  The  style  is  easy  and  flow- 
ing, and  sometimes  rises  to  poetic  inspiration. 
The  personifications  of  wisdom  and  folly  in  c.  9 
give  a  good  example  of  his  manner.  A  more 
philosophical  mind  is  recognized  in  c.  8,  with  its 
personification  of  the  divine  wisdom,  first  of 
God's  creations,  the  skilled  artificer  who  was 
by  his  side  at  the  making  of  the  world,  rejoicing 
in  God's  habitable  earth  and  the  sons  of  men 
who  people  it.  Here  the  author  comes  near  the 
conceptions  of  the  Greek  "Wisdom  of  Solomon," 
and  prepares  the  way  for  the  theological  hypos- 
tases of  Wisdom  and  the  divine  Reason  and  Word 
(Logos). 

Even  among  the  aphorisms  of  the  older  col- 
lections, there  are  few  that  have  the  stamp  of 
true  popular  proverbs,  the  wisdom  of  the  genera- 
tions finding  the  pregnant  phrase  in  the  mouth 
of  the  people;  they  are,  what  indeed  they  pro- 
fess to  be,  maxims  of  the  sages,  fashioned  with 
conscious  art  for  a  didactic  end.  And  these 
sages  seem  to  have  been,  like  the  Greek  sophists, 
professional  teachers  of  the  youth  of  the  well-to- 
do  classes. 

That  the  bulk  of  this  wisdom,  when  compila- 
tion of  it  came  to  be  made,  should  have  been 
labeled  Solomonic,  is  explained  by  Solomon's 
fame  for  wisdom,  which  is  the  subject  of  numer- 
ous anecdotes  in  the  historical  books  (see  1  Kgs. 
iii.  4-15,  with  the  examples,  ibid.  vs.  16-28; 
1  Kgs.  x.  1-14,  etc.),  coupled  with  the  explicit 
statement  that  he  "spake  three  thousand  prov- 


232  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

erbs,"  not  to  mention  his  songs  and  his  expedi- 
tions into  natural  history  (1  Kgs.  iv.  29-34). 
In  later  times  Solomon's  fame  for  wisdom  was 
not  that  of  an  ethical  philosopher  but  of  an  adept 
in  magic.  It  is  almost  a  pity  to  take  away  from 
Solomon  the  urgent  warnings  against  women  in 
which  the  Proverbs  abound;  they  have  in  his 
mouth  such  a  mordant  irony. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

JOB 

The  Book  of  Job  is  the  greatest  work  of 
Hebrew  literature  that  has  come  down  to  us,  and 
one  of  the  great  poetical  works  of  the  world's 
literature.  In  the  form  of  a  colloquy  between 
Job  and  his  friends,  in  which  at  last  God  inter- 
venes, it  discusses  the  gravest  problem  of  the- 
odicy, How  can  the  suffering  of  a  good  man  be 
reconciled  with  the  moral  government  of  God? 

In  a  prose  introduction  the  reader  is  apprised 
of  the  true  cause  of  Job's  sufferings,  of  which  the 
parties  to  the  colloquy  are,  of  course,  ignorant: 
they  are  a  trial  of  his  uprightness,  more  specifi- 
cally, of  his  disinterested  virtue.  In  this  "pro- 
logue in  heaven,"  Satan  insists  that  Job's  exem- 
plary virtue  is  no  wonder,  since  God  rewards 
him  so  well  for  it,  and  God,  who  has  full  faith 
in  the  patriarch,  gives  Satan  permission  to  test 
him.  In  an  hour  all  his  wealth  is  swept  away  and 
his  children  perish,  but  Job  bows  submissive  to 
God's  will.  Then  he  himself  is  smitten  with  a 
loathsome  and  distressful  ailment  which  was 
regarded  as  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  stroke  of  God, 
his  wife  bids  him  "bless"  God  (a  euphemism 
for  "curse")  and  die;  but  he  rebukes  her:  "What? 
shall  we  receive  good  at  the  hand  of  God,  and 

233 


234  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

shall  we  not  receive  evil?  In  all  this  did  not  Job 
sin  with  his  lips."  His  three  friends  come  to 
bemoan  him  and  to  comfort  him,  but  the  sight 
of  his  misery  makes  them  dumb;  they  sit  down 
with  him  in  silence  for  seven  days.  So  far  the 
prologue. 

On  this  scene  the  poem  opens:  Job's  long 
suppressed  grief  breaks  out  in  bitter  words;  he 
curses  the  day  of  his  birth,  he  en^des  the  dead 
who  are  at  rest.  The  eldest  of  the  three  friends 
answers  him,  and  so  the  colloquy  begins.  The 
structure  of  the  poem  is  symmetrical.  Each 
friend  speaks  in  turn  and  to  each  Job  replies. 
The  cycle  is  thrice  repeated  (cc.  4-14;  15-21; 
22-26),  but,  at  least  in  the  present  text,  the 
third  round  is  incomplete  —  Zophar  has  no 
speech.  The  friends  being  apparently  convinced 
that  it  is  useless  to  argue  with  him,  Job  solilo- 
quizes (cc.  27-31),  contrasting  his  former  pros- 
perity with  his  present  adversity,  and  again  pro- 
testing his  good  conscience  before  God  and  men. 

Now  a  new  disputant  comes  on  the  scene, 
whose  name  does  not  appear  among  the  dramatis 
personse,  the  youthful  Elihu;  a  short  prose  intro- 
duction tells  us  who  he  is,  and  why  he  intrudes. 
He  is  incensed  at  them  all;  at  Job  for  justifying 
himself  at  God*s  expense,  at  the  friends  for  not 
having  found  arguments  to  put  him  down.  For 
his  part,  he  is  so  full  of  words  that  he  cannot  hold 
in.  He  delivers  himself,  accordingly,  of  four 
speeches  (cc.  32  f.;  34;  35;  36),  to  which  Job 
vouchsafes  no  reply. 

Suddenly    God,    whom   Job   had    alternately 


JOB  ^S5 

challenged  and  implored  to  appear,  answers  him 
out  of  the  whirlwind  (cc.  38-41);  with  Job's 
confession  of  his  presumption  in  speaking  of 
things  he  understood  not  (xlii.  1-6),  the  poem 
ends. 

In  the  prose  epilogue  God  condemns  the 
three  friends,  whom  he  pardons  at  Job's  prayer; 
and  the  trial  over,  God,  in  poetical  justice,  re- 
stores Job  to  a  prosperity  greater  than  the  first. 

In  the  argument,  the  three  friends  and  Elihu 
maintain  throughout  the  view  of  divine  retri- 
bution which  was  plainly  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
author's  time:  God  rewards  piety  and  virtue 
with  prosperity  and  requites  sin  with  adversity. 
This  law  is  grounded  in  the  righteousness  of 
God;  it  is  inconceivable  that  he  should  act 
otherwise.  Consequently,  if  a  man  is  over- 
whelmed by  calamity,  as  Job  is,  the  only  explana- 
tion their  religion  can  allow  is  that  he  is  a  great 
sinner;  any  other  interpretation  would  impugn 
the  justice  of  God  or  bring  into  question  the 
existence  of  a  divine  providence.  They  recognize, 
indeed,  that  in  sending  suffering  God  may  design 
through  chastisement  or  by  way  of  warning  to 
bring  the  sinner  to  repentance  and  amendment; 
they  admit  that  suffering  may  be  a  trial  of  man's 
faith.  They  present  the  matter  to  Job  thus, 
especially  in  their  earlier  speeches;  but  the 
character  of  Job's  replies  convinces  them  that 
neither  of  these  is  his  case,  and  they  come  at 
last  to  outspoken  accusation. 

Job  denies  their  insinuations  and  their  charges. 
He  has  done  nothing  to  deserve  such  a  fate;   if 


236  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

they  insist  on  calling  this  God's  justice,  he  will 
say  straight  in  God's  face  that  he  is  an  almighty 
tyrant,  who  unjustly  destroys  an  innocent  man. 
If  God  slay  him  for  it,  he  will  not  belie  his  con- 
scious rectitude. 

The  argument  goes  round  and  round,  takes 
this  or  that  turn,  grows  hotter  as  it  proceeds, 
but  does  not  get  beyond  this  deadlock.  The 
author's  motive  so  far  is  clear:  he  means  to  con- 
trovert the  dogma  that  all  suffering,  or  at  least 
extraordinary  suffering,  is  retributive,  and  to 
show  in  the  instance  of  Job  how  this  doctrine 
may  drive  a  godly  man  to  the  denial  of  God's 
justice  altogether.  With  remarkable  psycholog- 
ical insight,  however,  he  makes  Job  not  only 
cling  to  the  belief  that  God  is  more  just  than  his 
dealings  with  him  show,  but  makes  this  faith 
grow  in  even  steps  with  his  passionate  charges 
of  injustice.  He  appeals  from  the  injustice  of 
God  to  the  just  God  who  some  day  will  have  to 
justify  him. 

The  author  meant  to  refute  the  doctrine  that 
God's  providence  is  exhaustively  explained  by 
distributive  justice.  Had  he  his  own  solution  of 
the  problem  of  theodicy  to  put  in  the  place  of 
that,  cruel  dogma?  Job,  we  have  seen,  finds  no 
solution.  In  the  speeches  of  Jehovah,  where 
dramatic  fitness  would  lead  us  to  look  for  the 
author's  solution  if  he  had  one,  there  is  no 
refutation  of  Job's  charges,  no  response  to  his 
pleadings.  The  speeches  are  splendid,  but  the 
gist  of  them  is  that  God's  ways  are  inscrutable. 
If  man  cannot  comprehend  God's  operations  in 


JOB  237 

nature,  what  folly,  what  presumption,  to  pre- 
tend to  fathom  his  dealings  in  providence! 
In  that  Job  acquiesces  for  the  soul  of  man.  Let 
his  sufferings  be  a  mystery,  he  can  submit  and 
trust;  call  them  punitive,  and  he  revolts  against 
the  injustice.  That  is  the  end  to  which  the  author 
would  bring  his  readers.  Some  one  has  said  that 
there  is  nothing  about  which  men  are  usually 
so  sure  as  about  the  character  of  God,  and  nothing 
they  are  so  ready  to  do  as  to  interpret  his  dealings 
by  his  character  —  especially  his  dealings  with 
others.  Such  were  Job's  friends.  And  from  this 
point  of  view  we  have  no  difficulty  in  under- 
standing, what  has  stumbled  some  critics,  how 
they,  with  their  zeal  for  God's  character  —  that 
is,  for  their  orthodox  conception  of  it  —  come  off 
in  the  epilogue  with  so  smart  a  rebuke,  while 
Job,  whose  words  seemed  to  them  sheer  blas- 
phemy, is  praised  for  saying  what  was  right  about 
God. 

The  theme  of  the  Book  of  Job  is  one  which 
exercised  the  greatest  of  the  Greek  tragic  poets, 
and  it  is  treated  with  an  ^schylean  grandeur; 
in  conception  and  execution  it  declares  the 
genius  of  its  author.  It  has  not  come  into  our 
hands  altogether  as  it  left  his,  and  certain  parts 
of  the  poem  are  generally  recognized  as  additions 
by  other  pens. 

The  most  considerable  of  these  are  the  speeches 
of  Elihu  (cc.  32-36).  It  has  already  been  noted 
that  Elihu's  name  is  not  in  the  prologue,  he  comes 
in  with  a  bit  of  a  prologue  of  his  own  (xxxii. 
1-5);    and  when  the  three  friends  are  rebuked 


238  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  the  epilogue,  he,  who  surely  deserved  the  same 
condemnation,  is  ignored.  All  his  speeches, 
provocative  enough,  draw  no  reply  from  Job. 
When,  at  the  end  of  Elihu's  discourse,  God 
answers  out  of  the  whirlwind  (xxxviii.  1  ff.), 
"Who  is  this  that  darkeneth  counsel  by  words 
without  knowledge,"  it  is  to  Job  he  addresses 
himself,  not  Elihu;  and  the  appearance  of  God 
is  naturally  taken  as  the  response  to  Job's 
challenge  in  xxxi.  35,  "O  that  I  had  one  to 
hear  me,"  etc.,  just  before  Elihu  breaks  in.  All 
these  signs  indicate  that  Elihu  is  an  intruder. 
This  inference  is  borne  out  by  the  arguments  so 
pretentiously  announced.  They  are  in  the  main 
variations  on  the  themes  in  the  preceding  speeches 
of  the  friends,  with  a  certain  evident  predilec- 
tion for  the  idea  that  suffering  is  a  warning.  It 
would  seem  that  another  poet  thought,  as  he 
makes  Elihu  boast,  that  he  could  improve  on  the 
arguments  of  the  friends.  The  unbiased  reader, 
without  depreciating  the  poetical  merit  of  the 
speeches,  will  be  likely  to  differ  with  him. 

The  eulogy  of  the  divine  wisdom  (Job  28)  is 
a  very  fine  poem,  in  the  vein  of  Prov.  8,  of 
which  it  is  probably  not  independent,  but  it  is, 
to  say  the  least,  inappropriate  in  the  mouth 
of  Job  at  this  point  in  the  debate.  The  descrip- 
tion of  ancient  mining  is  particularly  noteworthy. 
In  the  speeches  of  God,  the  long  descriptions  of 
the  hippopotamus  and  the  crocodile  (xl.  15- 
xli.  34)  are  not  without  reason  suspected  of  being 
purple  patches,  and  in  putting  them  in  some 
damage  has  been  done  to  the  margins.     It  has 


JOB  239 

been  questioned  whether  the  prose  prologue  and 
epilogue  really  belong  with  the  poem;  but  it 
would  not  be  intelligible  without  them. 

In  Ezek.  xiv.  14,  20  the  name  of  Job  occurs 
with  Noah  and  Daniel  as  exemplary  righteous 
men,  who,  if  they  were  alive,  could  nevertheless 
not  save  the  wicked  city  of  Jerusalem  from  its 
doom;  but  whether  the  story  Ezekiel  knew  about 
Job  had  any  resemblance  to  the  prologue  of  our 
book,  no  one  can  tell.  It  may  very  well  be  that 
there  was  a  prose  book  of  Job  (in  which,  possibly, 
the  friends  played  the  opposite  role  from  that 
given  them  in  the  poem),  and  that  the  poet  took 
from  it  the  incidents  and  setting  that  he  needed; 
but  about  that  also  nothing  can  be  known. 

The  age  of  the  book  is  determined  chiefly  by 
the  problem  with  which  it  deals.  The  doctrine 
of  individual  retribution  is  the  application  to  the 
individual  of  the  prophetic  teaching  about  God's 
dealing  with  the  nation;  it  appears  in  a  peculiarly 
crude  and  hard  form  in  Ezekiel  at  the  moment  of 
the  break  up  of  the  nation.  It  was  furthered  by 
the  teaching  of  the  sages,  as  in  Proverbs,  about 
the  connection  between  prosperity  and  happiness 
and  virtue.  Experience  contradicted  the  dogma, 
and  so  the  problem  of  theodicy  arose  —  arose  in 
a  peculiarly  difficult  form,  because  all  that  be- 
fell a  man  was  attributed  to  the  immediate  act 
of  God,  who  was  not  relieved  of  any  part  of  his 
responsibility  by  talk  of  second  causes  and 
natural  laws,  and  because  the  sphere  of  retri- 
bution was  limited  to  this  life,  with  no  relief  in 
the  possible  compensations  of  another. 


240  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

This  is  the  problem  of  Job,  and  of  itself  suffi- 
ces to  put  the  book  in  what  is  called  the  post- 
exilic  age.  It  belongs  to  the  literature  of  Jewish 
Wisdom,  with  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes.  The 
latter  book,  one  of  the  latest  certainly  in  the  Old 
Testament,  is  much  concerned  with  the  same 
conflict  of  dogma  with  experience,  though  in  a 
very  different  spirit.  Job  may  be  a  work  of  the 
fifth  century  B.  c,  or  perhaps  of  the  fourth.  The 
language  would  incline  us  to  the  earlier  date. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

ECCLESIASTES.      SONG  OF   SONGS 

Two  singular  books  remain,  about  the  inspira- 
tion of  both  of  which  the  straitest  sect  of  the 
Pharisees  in  the  first  century  of  our  era  had 
grave  difficulties,  Ecclesiastes  and  the  Song  of 
Songs.  Both  are  attributed  to  Solomon,  the 
Song  by  title,  Ecclesiastes  by  implication  in  the 
book  itself,  and  doubtless  the  supposed  author- 
ship had  much  to  do  with  finally  securing  the 
two  books  a  place  in  the  Jewish  Bible. 

Ecclesiastes 

The  title  of  Ecclesiastes  runs,  "The  words 
of  Koheleth  the  son  of  David,  king  in  Jerusalem," 
under  which  pseudonym  no  one  but  Solomon  can 
be  meant;  see  also  Eccl.  i.  12,  and  especially 
ii.  1-11.  In  the  body  of  the  book,  Koheleth  is 
regularly  used  as  a  proper  name;  it  is  appar- 
ently coined  for  the  nonce.  Like  many  pseu- 
donyms in  other  literatures,  it  is  probably  a 
mystification,  piquant  to  the  author's  contem- 
poraries but  impenetrable  to  us.  That  it  means 
"Preacher"  —  an  ancient  guess  —  is  highly  im- 
probable; but  even  if  the  meaning  were  trans- 
parent, there  is  no  more  reason  for  translating  a 
fictitious  proper  name  than  a  real  one. 

241 


242  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

The  theme  of  this  symphony  of  pessimism  is 
stridently  announced  in  the  first  notes  of  the 
overture:  "Vanity  of  vanities,  vanity  of  vani- 
ties! Everything  is  vanity."  The  world  and  its 
happenings,  man  and  his  strivings,  pleasure, 
pain,  wisdom,  folly,  good  and  evil  —  all  is  utterly 
empty;  existence  has  no  meaning  and  no  worth. 
All  is  chance  and  change,  in  which  things  end- 
lessly go  round  and  round,  but  plan,  purpose, 
progress  is  nowhere  to  be  seen.  And  as  all 
have  one  lot,  even  this  senseless  and  inconstant 
fortune,  so  death  sooner  or  later  overtakes  all 
alike  and  ends  the  strange  play  without  plot 
we  call  human  life. 

Of  a  divine  providence  directed  to  any  end 
or  by  any  principle,  of  a  justice  above  which 
requites  men  according  to  their  deeds,  long  years 
and  happiness  to  the  wise  and  good,  adversity 
and  premature  death  to  the  wicked  and  foolish, 
Koheleth,  looking  on  the  world  of  things  as 
they  are  with  searching  eyes,  discovers  no  sign. 
Of  another  world  and  an  immortal  soul,  with 
which  some  of  his  contemporaries  consoled 
themselves,  he,  keeping  his  thinking  within 
the  bounds  of  experience,  knows  nothing.  Man 
dies  as  the  beast  dies,  the  same  vital  breath  is 
in  them  both,  all  are  of  dust  and  turn  to  dust 
again;  nor  has  man  any  advantage  over  the 
beast,  they  all  have  the  same  end  (iii.  19-21; 
ix.  4-6).  There  is  consolation  in  this  thought, 
when  the  misery  of  the  world  weighs  too  heavy 
on  the  heart.  The  dead  are  better  off  than  the 
living,  but  happier  still  it  would  be  never  to  be 


ECCLESIASTES  US 

born  to  see  the  evils  that   are  under  the   sun 

(iv.  2f.).  .      ,      , 

When  we  look  the  facts  squarely  m  the  face, 
the  only  counsel  of  wisdom  is  to  make  the  most 
of  what  capricious  fortune  gives  us  in  its  friendly 
moods,  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  life  offers  while  we 
can,  with  abandon,  but  without  excess.  For  the 
"too  much"  is  always  evil,  even  too  much  wis- 
dom and  virtue !  "  Be  not  over  righteous  nor  put 
on  too  much  wisdom,  why  shouldest  thou  ruin 
thyself?  Be  not  over  wicked,  and  do  not  be  a 
fool;   why  shouldest  thou  die  before  thy  time?" 

(vii.   16  f.). 

The  author's  religion  makes  God  somehow  the 
cause  of  what  happens  under  the  sun,  the  evil  and 
the  good.  In  one  place  he  seems  to  express  the  be- 
lief that  all  that  God  does  is  fine  and  opportune, 
if  man  could  only  understand  it;  but  God  has 
denied  man  the  intelligence  to  penetrate  the 
secret  of  his  ways.  So  there  is  nothing  better  for 
man  to  do  than  to  be  merry,  and  have  a  good  time 
while  he  is  alive! 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  what  scandal  all  this  gave 
to  pious  souls,  and  it  was  very  natural  that  ortho- 
dox editors  should  try  to  neutraUze  Koheleth's 
skepticism  and  his  epicurean  counsels  by  notes 
in  an  opposite  sense.  A  modern  editor  would  have 
put  his  protests  into  footnotes,  as  for  example 
to  Gibbon's  famous  chapters  on  the  spread  of 
Christianity;  an  ancient  editor,  having  no  foot- 
notes, put  his  incontinently  into  the  text. 

To  these  editorial  improvements  belong  the 
last  verses  (Eccl.  xii.  13  f.),  with  its  conclusion, 


^44  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

"Fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments,  for  this 
is  the  business  of  every  man;  for  God  will  bring 
every  deed  into  the  judgment  on  all  secrets, 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad."  The  judgment  after 
death  is  evidently  meant.  The  warning  against 
many  books  and  much  reading  in  xii.  12  is  also 
a  gloss,  while  xii.  9-11  appears  to  be  written  by 
an  earlier  editor  of  the  book,  commending  it  to 
reading  and  study.  In  the  body  of  the  book,  also, 
several  verses  are  obviously  introduced  to  give  an 
orthodox  twist  to  the  author's  very  heterodox 
utterances. 

That  Ecclesiastes  belongs  to  the  latest  stratum 
of  Hebrew  Biblical  literature  is  evident  from  both 
its  matter  and  its  style;  but  there  is  nothing  in  it 
by  which  its  age  can  be  exactly  fixed. 


Song  of  Songs 

A  verse  already  quoted  (1  Kgs.  iv.  32)  tells  that, 
besides  three  thousand  proverbs,  Solomon  com- 
posed a  thousand  and  five  songs.  We  shall 
probably  not  err  in  assuming  that  this  verse 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  editor  who  prefixed  the 
title  "The  Song  of  Songs  (that  is,  the  very  best 
of  songs),  by  Solomon."  There  is  nothing  in  the 
book  to  indicate  that  Solomon  was  the  author  or 
that  the  poet  meant  his  productions  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  him. 

The  one  theme  of  the  book,  running  through 
many  variations,  is  the  love  of  man  and  woman, 
passionate  and  sensuous.  In  the  second  cen- 
tury of  our  era  its  songs  were  warbled  at  banquets 


SONG  OF   SONGS  U5 

or  wedding  feasts,  a  profane  abuse  on  which  a 
scandalized  rabbi  denounced  damnation.  In  the 
first  century  it  was,  in  spite  of  Solomon's  name,  no 
Holy  Scripture  for  the  straitest  sect,  and  was 
not  finally  admitted  to  the  canon,  we  may  be 
pretty  sure,  until  an  allegorical  sense  had  been 
discovered  in  it,  or  rather,  imposed  on  it:  it 
sang,  under  the  figure  of  wedded  love,  of  the 
relation  of  the  Lord  to  Israel.  The  Fathers  took 
over  all  the  allegory,  only  making  the  lover 
Christ,  the  beloved  the  Church  (as  still  in  the 
running  titles  of  the  Authorized  Version),  or  the 
soul.  The  mediaeval  church  saw  in  the  bride  the 
Virgin  Mary.  The  allegorical  interpretation  was 
a  necessary  corollary  of  the  dogmatic  assumption 
that  the  canon  of  inspired  scripture  could  contain 
nothing  but  books  of  religious  instruction  and  edi- 
fication. Allegorical  love  poetry  —  usually  the 
love  of  God  and  the  soul  —  is  not  uncommon  in 
mystical  sects  or  circles  of  various  creeds;  and 
the  ultraspiritual  poets  often  revel  in  an  ultrasen- 
sual  imagery  of  passion  and  fruition;  but  nothing 
in  the  Song  of  Songs  suggests  such  an  origin,  nor 
have  we  knowledge  of  a  Jewish  mysticism  of 
this  erotic  type  in  the  centuries  from  which  it 
must  come. 

The  literary  criticism  of  the  last  century  chiefly 
spent  itself  in  endeavors  to  discover  in  the  book  a 
lyric  drama  with  a  moral  tendency,  on  some  such 
theme  as  the  triumph  of  pure  love  over  lust. 
Great  ingenuity  was  expended  in  dividing  the 
text  into  regular  acts  and  scenes  and  assigning 
the  speeches  to  the  leading  actors  and  the  chorus. 


246  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

In  its  simplest  form  there  were  but  two  actors,  the 
virtuous  village  maiden  and  the  harem- jaded 
Solomon;  a  more  plausible  scheme  gave  the  girl 
a  rustic  lover,  which  added  much  to  the  piquancy 
of  the  scenes  with  Solomon,  and  to  the  denoue- 
ment, in  which  the  king,  foiled  by  the  maiden's 
constancy,  confesses  virtue  triumphant,  and  sends 
her  back  to  her  shepherd  swain.  More  recent  sup- 
porters of  the  dramatic  hypothesis  have  modified 
this  scheme  in  a  way  to  remove  some  of  its 
plainest  difficulties,  but  have  complicated  it  in 
proportion. 

Other  interpreters  take  the  book  for  a  collec- 
tion of  love  songs,  or,  more  specifically,  of  wed- 
ding songs,  such  as  are  sung  to-day  at  village 
weddings  in  Syria  and  Palestine.  A  certain  dra- 
matic quality  in  the  songs,  and  their  relation  to 
successive  stages  of  the  festivities,  would  give 
the  appearance  of  a  progressive  action  which  has 
been  urged  for  the  dramatic  theory.  The  Syrian 
peasant  to-day,  in  the  region  of  Damascus,  is  for 
his  bride-week  in  song  and  salutation  a  king  or 
prince;  a  sledge  on  the  village  threshing-floor  is 
his  throne,  and  the  bride  is  queen.  Through  the 
week  the  royal  pair  are  honored  by  the  villagers 
with  songs  and  dances.  If  in  the  Hebrew  songs 
the  bridegroom-king  is  sometimes  called  Solomon, 
it  is  because  Solomon  was  the  richest  and  most 
splendid  of  kings.  This  view  of  the  nature  of  the 
book  is  simpler  and  more  probable.  The  several 
poems  are  not  distinguished  by  titles,  and  there 
is  room  for  difference  of  opinion  about  the  divi- 
sions;  but  this  is  a    small    difficulty  compared 


SONG   OF   SONGS  247 

with  the  partition  into  roles  in  the  supposed 
play. 

The  songs  are  fine  examples  of  popular  poetry, 
with  traditional  subjects,  forms,  and  imagery. 
Nothing  requires  us  to  suppose  that  they  are  the 
production  of  one  poet;  we  may  think  of  them 
rather  as  an  anthology  of  love  songs,  not  neces- 
sarily all  composed  for  wedding  festivities,  but 
all  appropriate  for  use  on  such  occasions. 

The  language  of  the  songs  proves  that  they 
belong  to  a  very  late  period  in  Hebrew  literature, 
though  the  type  is  doubtless  old  enough.  Such 
popular  poetry  has  no  motive  for  preserving  or 
imitating  archaism,  as  hymn  writers  do,  but  mod- 
ernizes itself  from  generation  to  generation.  The 
wedding  songs  of  old  Israel  may  have  been  like 
enough  to  these  in  character,  but  they  were  in 
another  speech. 

It  was  a  fortunate  misunderstanding  that  has 
preserved  them;  but  the  accidental  preserva- 
tion of  these  few  pages  emphasizes  the  loss  of 
almost  every  other  vestige  of  Hebrew  secular 
poetry. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1.  General 

Smith,  W.  Robertson.  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish 
Church.  A  course  of  lectures  on  Biblical  criticism.  2nd  ed. 
London  and  Edinburgh.  1892.  —  These  lectures,  first  pub- 
lished in  1881,  were  meant  to  give  to  laymen  an  account  of 
the  problems  and  methods  of  criticism.  They  are  a  remark- 
ably lucid  exposition  of  the  subject,  and  may  still  be  read 
with  profit  as  a  general  introduction  to  criticism. 

2.  The  Canon 

Ryle,  H.  E.  The  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament.  London. 
1892;  2nd  ed.  1895.  —  A  history  of  the  growth  of  the  Old 
Testament  rather  than  a  history  of  the  canon.  Li  that 
growth  there  were,  according  to  the  author,  three  stages; 
in  the  first,  which  began  with  the  ratification  of  Deuteronomy 
in  621  B.  C,  the  Law  (Pentateuch)  was  the  only  recognized 
collection  of  Sacred  Scripture;  in  the  second  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets;  and  in  the  third  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
"Writings."  The  latter  part  of  the  volume,  which  treats 
of  the  history  of  the  canon  in  the  usual  meaning  of  the  term, 
is  a  convenient  but  not  very  accurate  compilation. 

The  article  "  Canon"  (of  the  Old  Testament)  in  the  Encyclo- 
paedia Bihlica,  by  Karl  Budde,  and  the  article  "Old  Testa- 
ment Canon"  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  by  F.  H. 
Woods,  are  concise  presentations  of  generally  accepted 
opinions  by  competent  scholars. 

3.  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament 

Driver,  S.  R.  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old 
Testament.  New  York.  1891.  6th  ed.,  revised,  1897,  and 
subsequent  re-impressions.  —  A  volume  of  the  International 
Theological  Library,  designed  primarily  for  ministers  and 
students  of  theology.  The  technical  matter  (lists  of  Hebrew 
words  and  the  like)  is,  however,  set  off  from  the  body  of  the 
text,  and  the  work  can  therefore  be  used  with  profit  by  laymen 
for  purposes  of  study.  The  synopses  of  the  contents  of 
Biblical  books  will  be  found  helpful  The  author  is  a  scholar 
249 


250  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

of  conservative  temper  and  cautious  about  accepting  new  or 
radical  theories. 

CoRNiLL,  Carl.  Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Books 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Translated  by  G.  H.  Box.  New  York. 
1907.  —  Originally  one  of  a  German  series  of  theological 
handbooks,  this  volume  is  on  a  smaller  scale  than  Driver's 
and  goes  less  into  details  which  are  of  interest  only  to  the 
professional  student.  The  author's  criticism  is  much  less 
conservative  than  Driver's  and  more  original. 

Kent,  C.  F.  The  Student's  Old  Testament.  New 
York.  1904-1910.  —  I.  Narratives  of  the  Beginnings  of  He- 
breiv  History,  1904;  II.  Israel's  Historical  and  Biographical 
Narratives,  1905;  III.  The  Sermons,  Epistles,  and  Apocalypses 
of  Is^raeVs  Prophets,  1910;  IV.  Israels  Law  and  Legal  Pre- 
cedents, 1907.  (Two  volumes  on  the  Poetical  Books  will 
complete  the  series.)  —  The  results  of  the  critical  study  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  here  presented  in  constructive  form, 
inva  revised  English  translation  with  notes  and  ample  intro- 
ductions. The  sources  of  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Historical 
Books  are  separated,  and  where  the  narratives  are  parallel 
they  are  printed  in  parallel  columns  with  headings  indicating 
their  origin.  The  analysis  is  also  set  out  in  tabular  form, 
and  maps  and  chronological  charts  are  added.  The  oracles 
of  the  prophets  are  arranged,  so  far  as  possible,  in  chrono- 
logical order,  additions  and  interpolations  being  set  in  smaller 
type.  The  laws  in  each  stratum  of  the  legislation  are  provided 
with  captions,  and  indices  facilitate  the  comparison  of  laws 
on  the  same  subject.  Each  volume  is  furnished  with  a  classi- 
fied bibliography.  The  author  is  an  experienced  teacher  and 
book-maker,  and  has  a  fine  talent  for  exposition. 

Carpenter,  J.  Estlin,  and  Harford-Battersby,  G. 
The  Hexateuch  according  to  the  Revised  Version.  2  vols. 
London.  1900.  —  The  first  volume  (separately  reprinted, 
1902)  contains  an  excellent  history  of  criticism,  and  develops 
fully  and  very  clearly  the  evidence  for  the  prevailing  theory 
concerning  the  sources  and  composition  of  the  Hexateuch. 
Tabular  appendices  exhibit  the  linguistic  evidence  in  a  form 
which  makes  it  available,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  reader 
who  does  not  know  Hebrew;  they  also  give  a  synopsis  of  the 
laws  and  institutions,  and  an  analysis  and  conspectus  of  the 
several  codes.  This  apparatus,  also,  although  primarily 
intended  for  the  scholar,  may  be  used  with  advantage  by  the 
layman  who  wishes  to  follow  the  critical  demonstration  in 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  251 

detail.  The  second  volume  presents  in  the  text  of  the  Revised 
Version  the  analysis  of  the  Pentateuch  and  Joshua  in  an 
extremely  ingenious  typographical  scheme  which  clearly 
distinguishes  the  several  sources  and  the  numerous  editorial 
hands  without  offending  the  eye  as  most  of  the  devices  do  which 
have  been  employed  for  the  same  purpose.  The  grounds 
of  the  analysis  are  set  forth  in  foot-notes  and  by  means  of  a 
marginal  apparatus  referring  to  parallel  passages  and  to  the 
tabular  appendices  in  the  first  volume. 

The  articles  on  the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  from 
Genesis  to  Judges  inclusive,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica, 
by  the  author  of  the  present  volume,  may  be  referred  to  for  a 
fuller  statement  of  the  reasons  for  his  views  and  a  more  de- 
tailed analysis.  The  article  "  Historical  Literature  "  in  the  same 
Encyclopaedia  gives  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  Hebrew 
historiography  from  its  beginnings  down  to  the  time  of 
Josephus. 

The  special  works  on  Introduction  to  the  Prophets  and  to 
the  Poetical  Literature  are  too  technical  in  character  for  the 
general  reader.  The  article  on  "Prophecy  and  Prophets" 
in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  by  A.  B.  Davidson, 
though  not  dealing  primarily  with  critical  questions,  may  be 
strongly  commended,  and  the  article  on  "Psalms,"  by  W.  T. 
Davison,  in  the  same  volume,  is  good.  An  excellent  article 
on  "Proverbs"  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica  should  also  be 
mentioned. 


INDEX 


Abomination,  Dan.  S,  183 

Cherubim  car,  175 

Acrostics,  226  f. 

Chron.  —  Ezra — Neh.,  one  book. 

Alexander  and  successors  in  Dan., 

116 

182  f. 

Chronicles,  Book,  116  3. 

Allegory,  in  Song  of  Songs,  245 

sources,  122  f. 

Amos,  Book,  194  ff. 

genealogies,  117 

Annals,  royal  and  temple,  99 

Antiochus  Epiphanes,  184,  185  f. 

Chronology  in  Judg.,  80 

Apocalypses,  character  of,  185 

in  Kgs.,  100 

• age,  how  determined,  185 

Commandments,  Ten,  49  f. 

Apocrypha,  older  use  of  the  name, 

Criticism,  historical,  24  f. 

17 

of  Pentateuch,  31  ff. 

Jerome,  17  f. 

Cyrus,  edict  of,  126 

Luther,  20  f . 

deliverer,  messiah,  157 

See  Canon 

Aramaic,  in  Ezra,  128 

Daniel,  Book,  178  ff. 

in  Daniel,  186  f. 

two  languages  in,  186 

Asa,  king,  121 

Assyria,    Greek   kingdom     (Syria), 

the  four  beasts,  c.  7,  182  f. 

152,  212 

ram  and  he-goat,  c.  5,_  183 

Astruc,  analysis  of  Genesis,  32 

Seleucids  and  Ptolemies,  c.  11, 

Athanasius,  16 

184  f. 

Augustine,  18  f. 

;age  of  the  book,  186 

Baal,  Tyrian,  109 

Baals  and  Astartes,  81,  190 

Babylon,     destruction,   prophesied, 

150 

■ taken  by  Cyrus,  151 

Babylonian  myths  in  Genesis,  42  f. 
Baruch,  scribe  of  Jeremiah,  163  f., 

165 
Bible,  Jewish,  see  Old  Testament 

Calvin,  on  Maccabaean  Psalms,  223 
Canaan,  conquest,  in  Jos.,  75  f .,  86  f . 
Canon,  Jewish,  formation  of,  10 

of  Greek-speaking  Jews,  13 

• Jewish,    in    Church    Fathers, 

14  ff. 

of  Greek  Church,  13  ff. 

Latin  Church,  16  ff. 

Syrian  churches,  19. 

in  the  Middle  Ages,  19 

the  Reformation,  19 

Reformed  churches,  21 

Council  of  Trent,  22 

See  also  Apocrypha 

Chaldaeans,  in  Hab.,  203 
in  Dan.,  186 


Darius  Hystaspis,  207  f . 
David,  history,  94  f.,  99 

Psalms  of,  221 

Day  of  the  Lord,  in  Zeph.,  205 

in  Joel,  193 

in  Mai.,  214  f. 

Deborah,  Song  of,  87 

Decalogue,  49  f. 

Deluge,  Babylonian  myth,  42  f. 

Deuterocanonic  Books,  23 

D  (Deuteronomy,    Deuteronomist), 

35  -i 
Deuteronomists,  historians,  82 

See  also  Jos.,  Judg.,  Kgs. 

Deuteronomy,  57  ff. 

programme  of  a  reform,  61 

age  of  the  book,  62  f. 

Dragon  of  the  sea,  154 

ET(Elohist),  35  _ 

characteristics,  39  ff. 

-origin,  41 

-age,  66  f. 
loreb  constitution  in,  50 

in  Jos.  1-12,  73  ff. 

• in  Judg.,  84 

Ecclesiastes,  Book,  241  ff. 


~m 


254 


INDEX 


Ecclesiastes,  interpolations,  243  f. 

age,  244 

inspiration,  8  £F.,  243 

Ecclesiastical  Books,  16,  23 
Ecclesiasticus,  in  the  Church,  14  f . 
Eden,  Garden  in,  43 

Prince  of  Tyre  in,  175 

Edom,   prophecies   against,  155   f., 

174,  195,  197 

Obad.,  198 

Egypt,  Ezekiel's  prophecy,  174 

Eli,  a  judge,  88 

Elihu,  in  Job,  237  f. 

Elijah,  109  f.,  143 

Elisha,  110  f. 

Esther,  Book,  133  ff. 

mythical  interpretation,  135 

age,  136,  137  f. 

inspiration,  8,  136 

additions  in  Greek,  136 

Exile,  theory  of  the  return,  120 

Exodus,  Book,  47  f . 

Ezekiel,  Book,  172  ff. 

against  foreign  nations  {cc.  25- 

3S),  173  f. 

state  of  the  text,  177 

Ezra,  127  ff. 

Priests'  Code,  55  f. 

two  languages  in,  128 

Ezra  and  Neh.,  sequel  of  Chron.,  116 

contents,  126  ff. 

sources,  129  f. 

historical  value,  131 

derangement,  130  (c/.  126-129) 

Fast,  the  true,  210 

Feasts,  agricultural,  68 

Fool,  in  Proverbs,  229  f . 

Foreign  nations,  oracles  against, 
139,  150  ff.,  155  f.,  169  f.,  173  ff., 
193,  195,  198,  201  f.,  203,  211  f. 

Genesis,  Book,  34  ff. 
Gerizim,  temple  on,  119 
God,  national  idea,  143 

moral  idea,  143 

in  J,  37  f. 

in  E,  39  f . 

in  P,  46 

in  Amos,  196  f. 

in  Hosea,  191,  197 

in  Deuteronomy,  58  f. 

in  Isaiah  iO-66,  158 

Gog  and  his  hordes,  175,  193 

echo  in  Zech.,  211 

Golden  age,  prophecies  of,  149,  155, 
166  ff.,  173, 176, 191,  195  f.,  210  f. 
Golden  calves.  102,  196 
Gospels,  inspiration  of,  10 


Greek  versions  of  O.  T.,  11 
Greeks,  kingdom  doomed,  212 

Habakkuk,  Book,  203  ff. 

Hadrach,  212 

Haggai.  Book,  207 

Heavenly  bodies,  judgment  on,  153 

Hezekiah,  king,  112  f. 

High  places,  66  f.,  94,  102 

untouched  by  good  kings,  106 

Hezekiah's  measures,  112  f. 

— Josiah,  61  f.,  114 
Historical  literature,  96  ff. 
-^—oldest,  98,  cf .  94  f . 
History,  religious  lessons,  103 
Holiness,  Law  of,  Lev.  17-26,  5S  f. 
Horeb,  Mount  of  God,  48 
Hosea,  Book,  188  ff. 

Idolatry,  satire  on,  158 
Idols,  see  Golden  Calves,  Serpent 
Immortality,  denied  in  Eccles.,  242 
Inspiration,  cessation  of,  10 

of  Eccles.  and  Cant.,  8  ff. 

;-of  Gospels,  10 

Isaiah,  prophet,  113,  145 

genius  of,  148 

earlier  utterances,  149 

rejection  of  sacrifice,  149 

Isaiah,  Book,  145  ff. 

main  divisions,  145  f. 

cc.  1-12,  147  f. 

cc.  13-23,  150  ff. 

cc.  2k-27,  153  f. 

cc.  28-33,  154  f. 

cc.  3i-35,  155  f. 

cc.  36-39,  145 

cc.  JfO-66,  156  ff. 

J  and  E,  characteristics  of,  36  ff. 

in  Gen.,  common  tradition,  40  f. 

diversity  of  traditions,  68 

combined  in  one  book  (J  E),  69 

in  Jos.,  76 

• in  Judg.,  84 

J  (Jahvist),  35  _ 

J,  literary  quality,  37 

in  Gen.  1-11,  two  strands,  41  f. 

anthropomorphism,  37  f.,  42 

• religious  element,  37  ff. 

■ origin,  41 

age,  66  f. 

fundamental  law  in,  49  f. 

in  Jos.,  73  ff. 

in  Judg.,  84 

in  Sam.,  98 

Jehoash,  king  of  Israel,  111 
Jehoiakim,  king,  164 
Jehu,  king,.110,  111 


INDEX 


^55 


Jeremiah,  prophet,  162 
——his  hard  lot,  168  f. 

"confessions,"  169 

not  author  of  Lam.,  226 

Jeremiah,  Book,  162  S. 

later  additions,  165  f.,  168,  170 

Hebrew  and  Greek  texts,  170  f. 

Jericho,  taking  of,  73  f. 

Jeroboam  I,  102,  106 

Jeroboam  II,  112 

Jerome,  16,  17 

Jerusalem,  two  sieges,  114  f.,  172 

in  Chron.,  119 

Joash,  king  of  Judah,  111 
Job,  mention  of  in  Ezek.,  239 
Job,  Book,  233  £F. 

prologue  and  epilogue,  239 

structure  of  the  poem,  234  f. 

purpose  of  author,  236  f. 

age,  239  f. 

later  additions,  237  ff. 

Joel.  Book,  192  ff. 
Jonah,  Book,  138  ff. 
Joshua,  Book,  72  ff. 
Josi'ah,  king,  114 

his  reforms,  61 

reaction,  102  f. 

Judas  Maccabaeus,  184 
Judges,  Book,  79  ff . 

stories  of  deliverance,  82  ff. 

interpretation  of  history,  79,  81 

original  close  of  the  Book,  88 

Judgment,  last,  in  Isa.  2^-27,  153  f. 
Julius  Africanus,  15 

Kadesh,  69 

Kingdom,  founding,  two  accounts, 
91 

division  of,  106 

Kings,  Books,  99  ff. 

2  Kgs.  18-30  =  Isa.  36-39,  112 

Koheleth,  the  name,  241 

Lamentations,  Book,  226  ff. 

Latin  Bible,  16 

Laws,  given  at  Sinai,  48 

Ezra's,  ratification  of,  128. 

Legends,  rise  of,  96 

Leviathan,  154 

Levites,  choice  of,  in  Num.,  54  f. 

;In  Chron.,  121 

Leviticus,  Book,  51  ff. 
Little  Horn,  Dan.  8,  183 
Love,  principle  of  religion   in   Hos., 
190  f. 

Malachi,  Book,  212  f. 
Manasseh,  king,  his  sins,  102 
Medes,  150 


Merodach  Baladan,  113,  150 
Messianic  prophecy,  see  Golden  Age 
Micah,  Book,  198  ff. 
Micaiah  ben  Imlah,  110,  143 
Midrash,  of  Kings,  122,  124 
Minor  Prophets,  188  ff. 
Mixed  marriages,  127,  128,  214 
Myths,  Babylonian,  in  Gen.,  174  f. 
Moloch,  102 

Monotheism,  in  Deut.,  58 
in  Isa.  iO-66,  158 

Naboth's  vineyard,  110 

Nahum,  Book,  201  f. 

Nehemiah,    mission    to   Jerusalem, 

127  f. 

Memoirs,  127,  129,  139 

Book,  116,  126  ff. 

New  Year,  48 

Nineveh,  prophecy  against,  Zeph., 

206 

Nah.,  201  f. 

Numbers,  Book,  54  ff. 

Obadiah,  Book,  197 

Old  Testament,  the  name,  7 

Jewish,  divisions,  8 

order  of  books,  8 

sacred  scriptures,  24 

a  national  literature,  25  ff. 

literary  quality,  27  f . 

Omri,  king,  107  f. 
Origen,  15 

P  (Priestly  authors),  35  f. 

— —Origins  of  Religious  Institu- 
tions, 43  f. 

in  Gen.,  contents,  44  ff. 

diction  and  style,  46 

conception  of  God,  46 

the  revelation  at  Sinai,  50 

age  of  the  laws  in,  65  f. 

age  and  origin  of  P,  55  f .,  64  f , 

united  with  J  E  D,  70 

in  Jos.,  76 

Passover,  47 

Patriarchs,  in  J  and  E,  36  ff. 

Pentateuch,  29  ff. 

the  Law  of  Moses,  31 

names  of  the  books,  29 

contents,  29-31 

• beginnings  of  criticism,  31  ff. 

main  sources,  32  f .,  34  ff. 

method  of  the  author,  70  f. 

composition,  64  ff. 

— — age  of,  as  a  whole,  70  f. 

See  under  the   several  Books, 

also,  J,  E,  D,  P. 

Peoples  of  the  land,  120 


256 


INDEX 


Porpyhry,  184 

Priesthood,  in  Chron.,  119,  120  f. 
Priests'  Code,  55  f.,  128,  131 
Priests  and  levites,  cities,  in  Jos,,  77 
Priests,  invective  in  Mai.,  213 
Primeval  History,  sources,  41 

ultimate  sources,  42  f. 

Prophets,  Former  and  Latter,  8 

in  old  Israel,  142  f. 

societies,  or  orders  of,  142  f, 

popular,  199  f. 

bad  repute  of,  194,  211 

ninth  century,  108  ff. 

eighth  century,  143  f .,  188,  197 

Proverbs,  Book,  228  ff. 
Providence,    skepticism  in   Eccles., 

242,  243 
Psalms.  Book,  216  ff. 

older  hymn  books,  218 

liturgical   and   devotional   use, 

216  f. 

titles,  217 

Elohistic  book  (Ps,  iS-82),  218, 

222 

Davidic,  221,  222,  223 

Asaphite  and  Korahite,  219,  222 

Songs  of  A-SBent3,  Hallels,  220 

Maccabsean,  2^3  f. 

age  of  the  Book,  223  ff. 

religious  conceptions,  224  f . 

Purim,  136 

Religion,  idea  of,  in   Hos.,  190   f. 

in  Deut.  59 

in  Mic,  201 

in  Isa.  40-66,  158  f. 

in  Proverbs,  229 

true,  among  the  heathen,  214 

Restoration,  in  Ezek.,  176 

in  Isa.,  40  ff. 

See  Golden  Age 

Retribution,    orthodoxy    of    Job's 

friends,  235 
Ruth,  Book,  136  ff. 

Sacrifice,  patriarchal,  50  f. 

ritual  laws,  in  I^ev.  1-7,  52 

prophetic  rejection,  149  f.,  196 

Samaria.  Omri's  new  capital,  108 

■ fall  of,  112 

Samaritan  sect,  in  Jewish  eyes,  120 

Samuel,  last  of  the  judges,  88  f. 

Samuel,  Books,  90  ff. 

Sanballat,  128 

"Scriptures,"  class  of  sacred  books,  8 

disputed,  9 

Scythians,  167  f.,  205 

Seers,  142 

Sennacherib,  siege  of  Jerusalem,  112 


Septuagint,  see  Greek  Version 

Serpent,  idol,  in  temple,  112  f. 

Servant  of  Jehovah,  in  Isa.  40  ff  .,il61 

Sheol,  imagery ,^150,  153,  174  f. 

Shishak,  invasion  by,  107 

Siloam  tunnel,  114 

Simon,  R.,  authorship  of  Pent.,  32 

Sinai,  48 

Sirach,  Book,  See  Ecclesiasticus 

Skepticism,  214 

Solomon,  95 

character  of  his  reign,  99 

his  wealth  and  wisdom,  104 

reputation  for  wisdom,  231 

• Proverbs  ascribed  to,  231  f. 

Eccles.  ascribed  to,  241 

■ Psalms  ascribed  to,  221  f. 

Song  of  Deborah,  87 
Song  of  Songs,  244  ff. 

allegorized,  245 

age,  247 

inspiration,  8,  245 

Spinoza,  authorship  of  Pent.  32  f. 
Story  books,  Jewish,  132  ff. 
Suffering  of  the  good,  in  Job,  235  ff. 
Susanna  and  the  Elders,  15,  186 
Symbolical  actions  in  Ezek.,   175 
Syria  ("Assyria"),  152,  212 
Syriac  Bible,  contents  of  O.  T.,  19 
Syrian  wars,  108 

Tabernacle,  in  P,  51 
Temple,  dedication  of,  104 

abode  of  Jehovah,  102 

no  protection  to  the  city,  163 

rebuilding  of,  207 

Theodicy,  in  Job,  235  ff.,  239 
Tyre,  prophecy  against,  Ezek.,  174 

Uncanonical    books,    Hebrew    and 

Greek,  12 
See  also  Apocrypha 

Valley  of  dry  bones,  176 
Visions,  in  prophets,  147, 175, 181  ff. 
195,  208 

Wedding  songs,  246 
Wisdom,  in  Proverbs,  229 

personified,  230 

-^—divine,  in  Job  S8,  238  f. 
Worship,  prophetic  attitude,  149  f. 
See  Sacrifice 

Zechariah,  Book,  208  ff. 
Zech.  9-11,  lS-1If,  age,  212 
Zedekiah,  king.  172  f. 
Zephaniah,  Book,  204  ff. 
Zerubbabel,  Messianic  hopes,  207  f. 


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author  of  "Montaigne  and  Shakespeare,"  "Modern  Humzinists." 

27.  MODERN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  G.  H.  Mair.  From  Wyall 
and  Surrey  to  Synge  and  Yeats.  "One  of  the  best  of  this  great 
series." — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

61.  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE  IN  LITERATURE.    By  G.  K.  Chesterton. 

40.  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  By  L  P.  Smith.  A  concise  history 
of  its  origin  and  development. 

66.  WRITING  ENGLISH  PROSE.  By  William  T.  Brewster,  Professor 
of  English,  Columbia  University.  "Should  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  every  man  who  is  beginning  to  write  and  of  every  teacher  of 
English  that  has  brains  enough  to  understand  sense." — NeHf  York 
Sun. 

58.  THE  NEWSPAPER.  By  G.  Binney  Dibble.  The  first  full  account 
from  the  inside  of  newspaper  organization  as  it  exists  to-day. 

48.    GREAT  WRITERS  OF  AMERICA.     By  W.  P.  Trent  and  John 

Erskine,   Columbia  University. 

93.    AN  OUTLINE  OF  RUSSIAN  LITERATURE.    By  Maurice  Baring, 

author  of  "The  Russian  People,"  etc.  Tolstoi,  Tourgenieff, 
Dostoievsky,  Pushkin  (the  father  of  Russian  Literature),  Salty- 
kov (the   satirist,)    Leskov,   and  many  other  authors. 

31.  LANDMARKS  IN  FRENCH  LITERATURE.  By  G.  L.  Slrachey, 
Scholar  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  "It  is  difficult  to  imagine 
how  a  better  account  of  French  Literature  could  be  given  in  250 
pages." — London  Times. 

64.    THE  LITERATURE  OF  GERMANY.    By  J.  G.  Robertson. 

62.  PAINTERS  AND  PAINTING.  By  Sir  Frederick  Wedmore.  With 
16  half -lone  illustrations. 

38.  ARCHITECTURE.  By  Prof.  W.  R.  Letbaby.  An  introduction  to 
the  hrsfbry  and  theory  of  the  art  of  building. 


NATURAL  SCIENCE, 

68.  DISEASE  AND  ITS  CAUSES.  By  W.  T.  Councilman,  M.  D., 
LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Pathology,  Harvard  University. 

85.  SEX.  By  J.  Arthur  Thompson  and  Patrick  Geddes,  joint  authors 
of  "The  Evolution  of  Sex." 

71.  PLANT  LIFE.  By  J.  B.  Farmer,  D.  Sc,  F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  Bot- 
any in  the  Imperial  College  of  Science,  London.  This  very  fully 
illustrated  volume  contains  an  account  of  the  salient  features  of 
plant  form  and  function. 

63.  THE  ORIGIN  AND  NATURE  OF  LIFE.  By  Benjamin  M.  Moore, 
Professor  of  Bio-Chemistry,  Liverpool. 

90.  CHEMISTRY.  By  Raphael  Meldola,  F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry, Finsbury  Technical  College.  Presents  the  way  in  which 
the  science  has  developed  and  the  stage  it  has  reached. 

53.  ELECTRICITY.  By  Gisbert  Kapp,  Professor  of  Electrical  En- 
gineering, University  of  Birmingham. 

54.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  EARTH.  By  J.  W.  Gregory,  Professor  of 
Geology,  Glasgow  University.  38  maps  and  figures.  Describes 
the  origin  of  the  earth,  the  formation  and  changes  of  its  surface 
and  structure,  its  geological  history,  the  first  appearance  of  life, 
and  its  influence  upon  the  globe. 

56.  MAN:  A  HISTORY  OF  THE  HUMAN  BODY.  By  A.  Keith,  M.  D., 
Hunterian  Professor,  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  London.  Shows 
how  the  human  body  developed. 

74.  NERVES.  By  David  Eraser  Harris,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Physi- 
ology, Dalhousie  University,  Halifax.  Explains  in  non- technical 
language  the  place  and  powers  of  the  nervous  system. 

21.  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENCE.  By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson, 
Science  Editor  of  the  Home  University  Library.  For  those  un- 
acquainted with  the  scientific  volumes  in  the  series,  rfiis  would 
prove  an  excellent  introduction. 

14.  EVOLUTION.  By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and  Prof.  Patrick 
Geddes.  Explains  to  the  layman  what  the  title  means  to  the 
scientific  world. 

23.  ASTRONOMY.  By  A.  R.  Hinks,  Chief  Assistant  at  the  Cam- 
bridge Observatory.  "Decidedly  original  in  substance,  and  the 
most  readable  and  informative  little  book  on  modern  astronomy 
we  have  seen  for  a  long  time." — Nature. 

24.  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH.  By  Prof .  W.  F.  Barrett,  formerly  Pres- 
ident  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

9.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PLANTS.  By  Dr.  D.  H.  Scott,  President 
of  the  Linnean  Society  of  London.  The  story  of  the  develop- 
ment of  flowering  plants,  from  the  earliest  zoological  times,  un- 
locked from  technical  language. 


80.  COMMON-SENSE  IN  LAW.  By  Prol.  Paol  Vinogradoff.  D.  C,  L, 
LL.  D.  Social  and  Legal  Rules — Legal  Rights  and  Duties — 
Facts  and  Acts  in  Law — Legislation—Custom — ^Judicial  Prece- 
dents— Equity — The  Law  of  Nature. 

49.    ELEMENTS   OF   POLITICAL   ECONOMY.     By   S.   J.    Chapman, 

Professor  of  Political   Economy  and  Dean  of  Faculty  of  Com- 
merce and  Administration,  University  of  Manchester. 

11.  THE  SCIENCE  OF  WEALTH.  By  J.  A.  Hobson,authorof  "Prob- 
lems  of  Poverty."  A  study  of  the  structure  and  working  of  the 
modern  business  world. 

1.    PARLIAMENT.     ITS  HISTORY,  CONSTITUTION,  AND  PRAC- 
TICE.    By  Sir  Courtenay  P.  Ilberl,   Clerk  of  the  House  of  Com- 


16.  LIBERALISM.  By  Prof.  L.  T.  Hobhoase,  author  of  "Democracy 
and  Reaction."  A  masterly  philosophical  and  historical  review  of 
the  subject. 

5.  THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE.  By  F.  W.  Hirst,  Editor  of  the  London 
Economist.  Reveals  to  the  non-linancial  mind  the  facts  about 
investment,  speculation,  and  the  other  terms  which  the  title  sug- 
gests. 

10.     THE    SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT.      By    J.    Ramsay    Macdonald, 

Chairman  of  llie  British  Labor  Party. 

28.  THE    EVOLUTION    OF    INDUSTRY.      By    D.    H.    MacGregor, 

Professor  of  Political  Economy,  University  of  Leeds.  An  out- 
line of  the  recent  changes  that  have  given  us  the  present  conditions 
of  the  working  classes  and  the  principles  involved. 

29.  ELEMENTS  OF  ENGLISH  LAW.  By  W.  M.  Geldart,  Vinerian 
Professor  of  English  Law,  Oxford.  A  simple  statement  of  the 
basic  principles  of  the  English  legal  system  on  which  that  of  the 
United  States  is  based. 

32.  THE  SCHOOL:  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  EDU- 
CATION.  By  J.  J.  Findlay,  Professor  of  Education,  Manches- 
ter. Presents  the  history,  die  psychological  basis,  and  the  theory 
of  the  school  with  a  rare  power  of  summary  and  suggestion. 

6.  IRISH  NATIONALITY.  By  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green.  A  brilliant  account 
of  the  genius  and  mission  of  the  Irish  people.  "An  entrancing 
work,  and  I  would  advise  every  one  with  a  drop  of  Irish  blood 
in  his  veins  or  a  vein  of  Irish  sympathy  in  his  heart  to  re«d  it,"-— 
A^eip  Ydrk  Times*  RteVteiw. 


GENERAL  HISTORY  AND  GEOGRAPHY. 

33.  THE  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  By  A.  F.  Pollard,  Professor  of 
English  History,  University  of  London. 

95.  BELGIUM.  By  R.  C.  K.  Easor,  Sometime  Scholar  of  Balliol 
College.  The  geographical,  linguistic,  historical,  artistic  and  lit- 
erary associations. 

100.  POLAND.  By  W.  Alison  Phillips,  University  of  Dublin.  The 
history  of  Poland  with  special  emphasis  upon  the  Polish  question 
of  the  present  day. 

34.  CANADA.    By  A.  G.  Bradley. 

72.     GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY.    By  Charles  Tower. 

78.  LATIN  AMERICA.  By  William  R.  Shepherd,  Professor  of  His- 
tory, Columbia.  With  maps.  The  historical,  artistic,  and  com- 
mercial development  of  the  Central  South  American  republics. 

IS.  THE  OPENING-UP  OF  AFRICA.  By  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston. 
The  first  living  authority  on  the  subject  tells  how  and  why  the 
"native  races"  went  to  the  various  parts  of  Africa  and  summarizes 
its  exploration  and  colonization. 

19.  THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA.  By  H.  A.  Giles,  Professor  of 
Chinese,  Cambridge. 

36.     PEOPLES  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA.    By  Sir  T.  W.  Holderness. 

"The  best  small  treatise  dealing  with  the  reinge  of  subjects  fairly 

indicated  by  the  title." — The  Dial. 
26.     THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY.    By  J.  L.  Myers,    Prof  essor  of  Ancient 

History,  Oxford. 
92.    THE  ANCIENT  EAST.     By  D.  G.  Hogarth,  M.  A.,  F.  B.  A., 

F.  S.  A.    Connects  with  Prof.  Myers's  "Dawn  of  History"  (No. 

26)    at   about    1000  B.  C.   and   reviews   the   history  of  Assyria, 

Babylon,  Cilicia,  Persia  and  Macedon. 
30.     ROME.    By  W.  Warde  Fowler,    author  of  "Social  Life  at  Rome." 

etc.     "A  masterly  sketch  of  Roman  character  and  what  it  did 

for  the  world." — London  Spectator. 
13.     MEDIEVAL  EUROPE.    By  H.  W.  C.  Davis,    Fellow  at  Balliol  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  author  of  "Charlemagne,"  etc. 
3.     THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.    By  Hillaire  Belloc. 
57.     NAPOLEON.     By  H.  A.  L.  Fisher,    Vice-Chancellor  of  Sheffield 

University.     Author  of  "The  Republican  Tradition  in  Europe." 

20.  HISTORY  OF  OUR  TIME  (1885-1911).  By  C.  P.  Gooch, 
A  "moving  picture"  of  the  world  since  1885. 

22.  THE  PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES.  By  Rev.  William  Barry, 
p.  D.,  author  of  "The  Papal  Monarchy,"  etc.  The  story  of  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  Temporal  PoXver. 


4.    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.    By  G.  H.  Ferris, 

author  of  "Russia  In  Revolution,"  etc. 

94.  THE  NAVY  AND  SEA  POWER.  By  David  Hannay,  author  of 
"Short  History  of  the  Royal  Navy,"  etc.  A  brief  history  of  the 
navies,  sea  power,  and  ship  grov^rth  of  all  nations,  including  the 
rise  and  decline  of  America  on  the  sea,  and  explaining  the 
present  British  supremacy  thereon. 
8.  POLAR  EXPLORATION.  By  Dr.  W.  S.  Brace,  Leader  of  the 
"Scotia"  expedition.     Emphasizes  the  results  of  the  expeditions. 

51.  MASTER  MARINERS.  By  John  R.  Spears,  author  of  "The  His- 
tory of  Our  Navy,"  etc.  A  history  of  sea  craft  adventure  from 
the  earliest  times. 

86.    EXPLORATION  OF  THE  ALPS.    By  Arnold  Lunn,  M.  A. 
7.     MODERN  GEOGRAPHY.    By  Dr.  Marion  Newbigin,    Shows  the  re- 
lation of   physical    features  to  llvlnj^   things  and  to  some  of  the 
chief  Institutions  of  civilization. 

76.  THE  OCEAN.  A  GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  SCIENCE  OF 
THE  SEA.  By  Sir  John  Murray,  K.  C.  B.,  Naturalist  H.  M.  S. 
"Challenger,"  1872-1876,  joint  author  of  "The  Depths  of  the 
Ocean,"  etc. 

84.  THE  GROWTH  OF  EUROPE.  By  Granville  Cole,  Professor  of 
Geology,  Royal  College  of  Science,  Ireland.  A  study  of  the 
geology  and  physical  geography  in  connection  with  the  political 
geography. 

AMERICAN  HISTORY. 

47.  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  (1607-1766).  By  Charles  McLean  An- 
drews,     Professor  of  American  History,  Yale. 

82.  THE  WARS  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA  (1763-1815). 
By  Theodore  C.  Smith,  Professor  of  American  History,  Wil- 
liams College.  A  history  of  the  period,  with  especial  emphasis 
on  The  Revolution  and  The  War  of  1812. 

67.  FROM  JEFFERSON  TO  LINCOLN  (1815-1860).  By  William 
MacDonald,  Professor  of  History,  Brovm  University.  The 
author  makes  the  history  of  this  period  circulate  about  constitu- 
tional ideas  and  slavery  sentiment. 

25.  THE  CIVIL  WAR  (1854-1865.)  By  Frederic  L.  Paxson, 
Professor  of  American  History,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

39.  RECONSTRUCTION  AND  UNION  (1865-1912).  By  Paul  Leland 
Haworth.     A  History  of  the  United  States  In  our  own  times. 

OTHER  VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

34  We«;t   33<\  Street  New  York 


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Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


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